Diagnostic Potential of Novel Salivary Host Biomarkers as Candidates for the Immunological Diagnosis of Tuberculosis Disease and Monitoring of Tuberculosis Treatment Response

PLoS One. 2016 Aug 3;11(8):e0160546. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0160546. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Background: There is an urgent need for new tools for the early diagnosis of TB disease and monitoring of the response to treatment, especially in resource-constrained settings. We investigated the usefulness of host markers detected in saliva as candidate biomarkers for the immunological diagnosis of TB disease and monitoring of treatment response.

Methods: We prospectively collected saliva samples from 51 individuals that presented with signs and symptoms suggestive of TB disease at a health centre in Cape Town, South Africa, prior to the establishment of a clinical diagnosis. Patients were later classified as having TB disease or other respiratory disease (ORD), using a combination of clinical, radiological and laboratory findings. We evaluated the concentrations of 69 host markers in saliva samples using a multiplex cytokine platform, and assessed the diagnostic potentials of these markers by receiver operator characteristics (ROC) curve analysis, and general discriminant analysis.

Results: Out of the 51 study participants, 18 (35.4%) were diagnosed with TB disease and 12 (23.5%) were HIV infected. Only two of the 69 host markers that were evaluated (IL-16 and IL-23) diagnosed TB disease individually with area under the ROC curve ≥0.70. A five-marker biosignature comprising of IL-1β, IL-23, ECM-1, HCC1 and fibrinogen diagnosed TB disease with a sensitivity of 88.9% (95% CI,76.7-99.9%) and specificity of 89.7% (95% CI, 60.4-96.6%) after leave-one-out cross validation, regardless of HIV infection status. Eight-marker biosignatures performed with a sensitivity of 100% (95% CI, 83.2-100%) and specificity of 95% (95% CI, 68.1-99.9%) in the absence of HIV infection. Furthermore, the concentrations of 11 of the markers changed during treatment, indicating that they may be useful in monitoring of TB treatment response.

Conclusion: We have identified novel salivary biosignatures which may be useful in the diagnosis of TB disease and monitoring of the response to TB treatment. Our findings require further validation in larger studies before these biosignatures could be considered for point-of-care screening test development.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Antitubercular Agents / therapeutic use
  • Biomarkers / analysis
  • Coinfection
  • Drug Monitoring / methods*
  • Female
  • HIV Infections / complications
  • HIV Infections / metabolism
  • HIV-1
  • Humans
  • Immunologic Tests*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Prognosis
  • Prospective Studies
  • Saliva / chemistry*
  • Saliva / immunology
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / diagnosis*
  • Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / drug therapy*
  • Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / immunology

Substances

  • Antitubercular Agents
  • Biomarkers

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP); grant number IP_2009_32040, through the African European Tuberculosis Consortium (AE-TBC, www.ae-tbc.eu), with Prof. Gerhard Walzl as Principal Investigator. The financial assistance of the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) is hereby also acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at, are those of the authors and are not necessarily to be attributed to any of the funders. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.