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

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.

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.

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.

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.