Wassie, L;
Demissie, A;
Aseffa, A;
Abebe, M;
Yamuah, L;
Tilahun, H;
Petros, B;
... VACSEL Study Grp; + view all
(2008)
Ex Vivo Cytokine mRNA Levels Correlate with Changing Clinical Status of Ethiopian TB Patients and their Contacts Over Time.
PLOS ONE
, 3
(1)
, Article e1522. 10.1371/journal.pone.0001522.
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Abstract
There is an increasing body of evidence which suggests that IL-4 plays a role in the pathogenesis of TB, but a general consensus on its role remains elusive. We have previously published data from a cohort of Ethiopian TB patients, their contacts, and community controls suggesting that enhanced IL-4 production is associated with infection with M. tuberculosis, rather than overt disease and that long-term protection in infected community controls is associated with co-production of the IL-4 antagonist IL-4 delta 2, alongside elevated IL-4. Here, for the first time, we compare data on expression of IFN-gamma, IL-4 and IL-4 delta 2 over time in TB patients and their household contacts. During the follow-up period, the TB patients completed therapy and ceased to display TB-like symptoms. This correlated with a decrease in the relative amount of IL- 4 expressed. Over the same period, the clinical status of some of their contacts also changed, with a number developing TB-like symptoms or clinically apparent TB. IL-4 expression was disproportionately increased in this group. The findings support the hypothesis that elevated IL-4 production is generally associated with infection, but that TB disease is associated with a relatively increased expression of IL-4 compared to IFN-gamma and IL-4 delta 2. However, the data also suggest that there are no clear-cut differences between groups: the immune response over time appears to include changes in the expression of IFN-gamma, IL-4 and IL-4 delta 2, and it is the relative, not absolute levels of cytokine expression that are characteristic of clinical status.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Ex Vivo Cytokine mRNA Levels Correlate with Changing Clinical Status of Ethiopian TB Patients and their Contacts Over Time |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0001522 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001522 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2008 Wassie et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This work was supported by the European commission through EU contracts ICA4-CT-1999-10005 and IC4-2001-10050. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis,decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Infection and Immunity |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/165743 |
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