Changes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis specific antigen-stimulated CD27 - CD38 + IFN-γ + CD4 + T cells before and after anti-tuberculosis treatment.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to investigate whether the expression of CD27- CD38+ in interferon (IFN)-γ+ CD4+ T cells stimulated by the specific antigen early secreted antigenic target-6 (ESAT-6)/culture filter protein-10 (CFP-10) could be a potential new therapeutic evaluation indicator for anti-tuberculosis (TB) treatment.

METHODS: Newly diagnosed active pulmonary TB patients, latent TB infection (LTBI) and healthy controls were enrolled from January 2021 to December 2021. PTB patients were treated by standard anti-TB regimen 2HREZ/4HR (2 months of isoniazid (H), rifampin (R), ethambutol (E), and pyrazinamide (Z) followed by 4 months of isoniazid (H) and rifampin (R)). The difference of CD27- CD38+ expression in IFN-γ+ CD4+ T cells before treatment, 2 months after treatment, and 6 months after treatment were compared.

RESULTS: Total 45 PTB patients, 38 LTBI cases and 43 healthy controls were enrolled. The expression of CD27- CD38+ decreased significantly after anti-TB treatment and was comparable with that in LTBI and healthy controls when the 6-month anti-TB treatment course was completed. The decline rate of CD27- CD38+ between 6 months after treatment and baseline was positively correlated with erythrocyte sedimentation rate (r = 0.766, P < 0.0001), C-reactive protein (r = 0.560, P = 0.003) and chest computerized tomography severity score (r = 0.632, P = 0.0005). The area under receiver operator characteristic curve of CD27- CD38+ in distinguish pulmonary TB patients before and after treatment was 0.779.

CONCLUSION: The expression of CD27- CD38+ in ESAT-6/CFP-10 stimulated IFN-γ+ CD4+ T cells can well reflect the changes of the disease before and after anti-TB treatment, which is expected to be a potential new therapeutic evaluation index. Clinical Registry number chiCTR1800019966.