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Diagnostic value of blood gene expression signatures in active tuberculosis in Thais: a pilot study

Genes & Immunity volume 16, pages 253–260 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global health problem. Routine laboratory tests or newly developed molecular detection are limited to the quality of sputum sample. Here we selected genes specific to TB by a minimum redundancy–maximum relevancy package using publicly available microarray data and determine level of selected genes in blood collected from a Thai TB cohort of 40 active TB patients, 38 healthy controls and 18 previous TB patients using quantitative real-time PCR. FCGR1A, FCGR1B variant 1, FCGR1B variant 2, APOL1, GBP5, PSTPIP2, STAT1, KCNJ15, MAFB and KAZN had significantly higher expression level in active TB individuals as compared with healthy controls and previous TB cases (P<0.01). A mathematical method was applied to calculate TB predictive score, which contains the level of expression of seven genes and this score can identify active TB cases with 82.5% sensitivity and 100% specificity as compared with conventional culture confirmation. In addition, TB predictive scores in active TB patients were reduced to normal after completion of standard short-course therapy, which was mostly in concordant with the disease outcome. These finding suggested that blood gene expression measurement and TB Sick Score could have potential value in terms of diagnosis of TB and anti-TB treatment monitoring.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all participants in this study. In addition, the authors are really appreciated all assistance in subject recruitment and all administrative works from the TB–HIV research foundation. This work was financially supported by the Department of Medical Sciences, the Ministry of Public Health, Thailand, the National Research Council of Thailand and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Sciences. The method for gene expression measurement described in this work is in the process of patenting in the Kingdom of Thailand (No. 1401004750).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Sciences, Medical Genetics Center, Medical Life Sciences Institute, Ministry of Public Health, Nonthaburi, Thailand

    N Satproedprai, N Wichukchinda, S Suphankong, W Inunchot, S Kumpeerasart, S Wattanapokayakit & S Mahasirimongkol

  2. TB/HIV Research Foundation, Chiangrai, Thailand

    T Kuntima

  3. Department of Medical Services, Chiangrai Hospital, Chiangrai, Thailand

    S Nedsuwan

  4. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Fukujuji Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

    H Yanai

  5. Japan Anti Tuberculosis Association, Research Institute of Tuberculosis, Tokyo, Japan

    K Higuchi & N Harada

  6. Research Institute of Immune Diagnosis, Tokyo, Japan

    K Higuchi & N Harada

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  1. N Satproedprai
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Correspondence to S Mahasirimongkol.

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Satproedprai, N., Wichukchinda, N., Suphankong, S. et al. Diagnostic value of blood gene expression signatures in active tuberculosis in Thais: a pilot study. Genes Immun 16, 253–260 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/gene.2015.4

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