The purified protein derivative (PPD) skin test for Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection lacks specificity. We assessed 2 more specific M. tuberculosis antigens (ESAT-6 and CFP-10) by enzyme-linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT) compared with PPD by ELISPOT and skin test in The Gambia. Of 735 household contacts of 130 sputum smear-positive tuberculosis cases, 476 (65%) tested positive by PPD ELISPO...

We constructed a Mycobacterium tuberculosis vector expressing CFP-10 and Rv2626c to examine the expression of these proteins in Escherichia coli as well as their immunoreactivity. The CFP-10 and Rv2626c genes were amplified from tuberculosis H37Rv genomic DNA using polymerase chain reaction. They were ligated into the expression vector PET30a and expressed in E. coli. Histidine tag nickel colum...

IFN-gamma responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigens ESAT-6 and CFP-10 have been proposed as specific markers of M. tuberculosis infection. Monokine induced by gamma interferon (MIG/CXCL9) has been shown to be expressed by IFN-gamma stimulated mononuclear cells and to attract activated T-cells through the chemokine receptor CXCR3. Since MIG is induced early in the response to IFN-gamma, m...

The differences in specificity of human lung and peripheral lymphocytes for mycobacterial antigens (Ag) need to be evaluated in order to identify vaccine candidates against pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Therefore, the present study examined the response to low molecular weight secretory proteins of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells ...

Routinely used molecular diagnostic methods for mycobacterium identification are expensive and time-consuming. To tackle this problem, we develop a method to streamline identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) in broth culture media by using detonation nanodiamonds (DNDs) as a platform to effectively capture the antigen secreted by MTBC which is cultured in BACTEC MGIT 960, f...

The cell-mediated immune response, with its shift in favour of type-1 over type-2 T-helper cell immune response, is generally regarded as essential to protection against mycobacterial infections. The aim of this study was to evaluate the protective potential of two multicomponent subunit vaccines (MSV-1 and MSV-2) against tuberculosis (TB) based on human immune recognition. MSV-1 consisted of f...

In the present study, we demonstrate that, in analogy with the genes encoding ESAT-6 and CFP-10, the genes rv0287 and rv0288 from the ESAT-6 gene family are cotranscribed. Using Western-Western blotting and protein-print overlay methodologies, we demonstrate that ESAT-6 and CFP-10, as well as the protein pair Rv0288/Rv0287, interact pairwise in a highly specific way. Most notably, the ESAT-6 pr...

23 In this manuscript, we determined if the sensitivity of the currently available in vitro 24 test to detect bovine tuberculosis could be enhanced by adding the following 25 immunomodulators: interleukin-2 (IL-2), granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating 26 factor (GM-CSF), antibodies neutralising interleukin-10 (IL-10) and transforming 27 growth factor beta (TGF-β), mono-methyl-L-arginine th...

BACKGROUND Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection may cause overt disease or remain latent. Interferon gamma release assays (IGRAs) detect Mtb infection, both latent infection and infection manifesting as overt disease, by measuring whole-blood interferon gamma (IFN-γ) responses to Mtb antigens such as early secreted antigenic target-6 (ESAT-6), culture filtrate protein 10 (CFP-10), and TB7...

In this study, we determined if the sensitivity of the currently available in vitro test to detect bovine tuberculosis could be enhanced by adding the following immunomodulators: interleukin-2 (IL-2); granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF); antibodies neutralizing IL-10 and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta); mono-methyl-l-arginine, which blocks nitric oxide productio...