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. 2024 Jan 13;14(2):177.
doi: 10.3390/diagnostics14020177.

IP-10 for the Diagnosis and Treatment Monitoring of Tuberculosis in Children

Agnieszka Strzelak  1 , Anna Komorowska-Piotrowska  1 , Agnieszka Borowa  2 , Maria Krasińska  2 , Wojciech Feleszko  1 , Marek Kulus  1
Affiliations

IP-10 for the Diagnosis and Treatment Monitoring of Tuberculosis in Children

Agnieszka Strzelak et al. Diagnostics (Basel). .

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the utility of interferon-gamma-inducible protein 10 (IP-10) for identifying active tuberculosis (TB) and TB infection (TBI) in children in BCG-vaccinated populations, establish its diagnostic performance characteristics, and evaluate changes in IP-10 level during anti-TB chemotherapy.

Methods: Concentrations of IP-10 and IFN-γ were measured in QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT) supernatants in children with suspected TB or due to recent TB contact. A total of 225 children were investigated: 33 with active TB, 48 with TBI, 83 TB contacts, 20 with suspected TB but other final diagnoses, and 41 controls. In 60 children, cytokine responses were evaluated at a follow-up visit after 2 months of anti-TB treatment.

Results: IP-10 expression was significantly higher in infected children (active TB and TBI cases) than in uninfected individuals. IP-10 proved effective in identifying TB infection at its optimal cut-off (>1084.5 pg/mL) but was incapable of differentiating between children with active TB and TBI. Combining IP-10 and IFN-γ increased the QFT sensitivity. IP-10 but not IFN-γ decreased significantly during anti-TB treatment in children with active TB (p = 0.003).

Conclusion: IP-10 identifies TB infection and declines during anti-TB chemotherapy in children. Incorporating IP-10 into new immunodiagnostic assays could improve TB diagnosis and allow for treatment monitoring.

Keywords: LTBI; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; TB contact; chemokine CXCL10; tuberculosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Comparison of Mtb. antigen-stimulated IP-10 responses among the study participants. ATB—active tuberculosis; TBI—tuberculous infection; TB—tuberculosis; ns—non-significant (Mann-Whitney test).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mtb. antigen-stimulated IP-10 responses in children with clinical suspicion of TB (A) and contact tracing referrals (B) (Mann–Whitney test).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Antigen-stimulated IP-10 (A,B) and IFN-γ (C,D) levels before (T1) and after 2 months (T2) of anti-tuberculosis treatment in all controlled children (ATB, TBI, and TB contacts) (A,C) and only in children with ATB (B,D) (Wilcoxon signed-rank test).
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