Integrating plasma proteomics to identify tuberculosis-specific diagnostic biomarkers

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a disease of global significance, causing 1.3 million deaths and 10.6 million cases of active disease worldwide each year. The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified a global case detection gap of 3.1 million patients with undiagnosed cases predominantly occurring in high-TB-burden countries. Diagnostic delays in low- and middle-income settings are often many months and associate with increased risk of cavitary disease and sputum smear positivity, reflecting high infectiousness. TB control strategies are limited by currently available diagnostics and diagnostic biomarkers capable of identifying people with infectious TB in high-burden settings, ideally at the point of care and not requiring sputum expectoration, are urgently needed. Using complementary proteomic approaches, cross-disciplinary research and international collaboration, we have identified protein biomarkers with high TB-specificity and demonstrate the diagnostic performance of a six-protein diagnostic panel with

 

Learning Objectives