Novel transcriptional signatures for sputum-independent diagnostics of tuberculosis in children

TY - JOUR

T1 - Novel transcriptional signatures for sputum-independent diagnostics of tuberculosis in children

AU - Gjøen, John Espen

AU - Jenum, Synne

AU - Sivakumaran, Dhanasekaran

AU - Mukherjee, Aparna

AU - Macaden, Ragini

AU - Kabra, Sushil K

AU - Lodha, Rakesh

AU - Ottenhoff, Tom H M

AU - Haks, Mariëlle C

AU - Doherty, Timothy Mark

AU - Ritz, Christian

AU - Grewal, Harleen M S

N1 - CURIS 2017 NEXS 198

PY - 2017/12/1

Y1 - 2017/12/1

N2 - Pediatric tuberculosis (TB) is challenging to diagnose, confirmed by growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis at best in 40% of cases. The WHO has assigned high priority to the development of non-sputum diagnostic tools. We therefore sought to identify transcriptional signatures in whole blood of Indian children, capable of discriminating intra-thoracic TB disease from other symptomatic illnesses. We investigated the expression of 198 genes in a training set, comprising 47 TB cases (19 definite/28 probable) and 36 asymptomatic household controls, and identified a 7- and a 10-transcript signature, both including NOD2, GBP5, IFITM1/3, KIF1B and TNIP1. The discriminatory abilities of the signatures were evaluated in a test set comprising 24 TB cases (17 definite/7 probable) and 26 symptomatic non-TB cases. In separating TB-cases from symptomatic non-TB cases, both signatures provided an AUC of 0.94 (95%CI, 0.88-1.00), a sensitivity of 91.7% (95%CI, 71.5-98.5) regardless of culture status, and 100% sensitivity for definite TB. The 7-transcript signature provided a specificity of 80.8% (95%CI, 60.0-92.7), and the 10-transcript signature a specificity of 88.5% (95%CI, 68.7-96.9%). Although warranting exploration and validation in other populations, our findings are promising and potentially relevant for future non-sputum based POC diagnostic tools for pediatric TB.

AB - Pediatric tuberculosis (TB) is challenging to diagnose, confirmed by growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis at best in 40% of cases. The WHO has assigned high priority to the development of non-sputum diagnostic tools. We therefore sought to identify transcriptional signatures in whole blood of Indian children, capable of discriminating intra-thoracic TB disease from other symptomatic illnesses. We investigated the expression of 198 genes in a training set, comprising 47 TB cases (19 definite/28 probable) and 36 asymptomatic household controls, and identified a 7- and a 10-transcript signature, both including NOD2, GBP5, IFITM1/3, KIF1B and TNIP1. The discriminatory abilities of the signatures were evaluated in a test set comprising 24 TB cases (17 definite/7 probable) and 26 symptomatic non-TB cases. In separating TB-cases from symptomatic non-TB cases, both signatures provided an AUC of 0.94 (95%CI, 0.88-1.00), a sensitivity of 91.7% (95%CI, 71.5-98.5) regardless of culture status, and 100% sensitivity for definite TB. The 7-transcript signature provided a specificity of 80.8% (95%CI, 60.0-92.7), and the 10-transcript signature a specificity of 88.5% (95%CI, 68.7-96.9%). Although warranting exploration and validation in other populations, our findings are promising and potentially relevant for future non-sputum based POC diagnostic tools for pediatric TB.

KW - Journal Article

U2 - 10.1038/s41598-017-05057-x

DO - 10.1038/s41598-017-05057-x

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 28724962

SN - 2045-2322

VL - 7

JO - Scientific Reports

JF - Scientific Reports

M1 - 5839

ER -