Systemic Immunological changes in patients with distinct clinical outcomes during Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.
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Date
2017
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Abstract
Background: The lung lesions in an individual infected with tuberculosis (TB) are surprisingly variable and
independent of each other. However, there is no circulating biomarker yet able to segregate patients according to
the extent of lung lesions.
Materials and methods: In this study, the phenotypic and functional profile of leukocytes of patients with active
pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and controls (CO) were fully scrutinized by immunophenotyping assays and in vitro
short-term whole blood culture. The TB group was subdivided according to the extent of lung lesions as unilateral
(UNI) and bilateral (BI).
Results: The results show that TB group display an altered leukocyte profile in the peripheral blood with significant
lower counts of NK-cells, CD3+CD56+CD16+/− NKT-cells, CD4+T-cells, CD19+B-cells when compared
to CO. Increased CD4+T-cells and CD8+T-cell activation was observed by the upregulation of activation markers
(HLA-DR) as well as of chemokine receptors (CCR2, CCR3, and CXCR4). In addition, TB group presented a
significant decrease proportion of CD14LowCD16+ monocytes despite the increase in HLA-DR expression.
Regarding the severity of the disease, in the BI group a reduction in frequency of CD19+CD5+ B-cells and
expression of HLA-DR in CD14LowCD16+ monocytes was observed. Furthermore, the extent of lung lesions
influences the production of molecules as observed by significantly larger production of IL-4 by neutrophils, total
T-cells, CD4+T-cells, CD8+T-cells and CD19+B-cells in UNI as compared to BI. By contrast, in BI group the
frequency of high producers of both IL-17+CD4+T-cells and IL-17+CD8+T-cells were significantly increased
than UNI, suggesting the deleterious role of these subsets during active pulmonary Mtb infection.
Conclusion: The immunophenotypic characterization of unilateral and bilateral active TB performed in the
present study indicates that the extent of lung lesion could be associated with a fine-tuning between immunological
responses during untreated Mtb infection.
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Keywords
Immune response, Immunophenotyping
Citation
PAPINI, T. F. M. et al. Systemic Immunological changes in patients with distinct clinical outcomes during Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Immunobiology, v. 22, n. 11, p. 1014-1024, nov. 2017. Disponível em: <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0171298517300992?via%3Dihub>. Acesso em: 29 ago. 2017.