Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) is responsible for ~10M infections and ~1.2M deaths each year. Most TB cases are transmitted during active infection, and therefore, missed diagnoses increase transmission and mortality. There is an urgent and unmet need for diagnostic biomarkers capable of identifying people with infectious TB, ideally at the point of care.
Method: Olink® PEA technology coupled with next-generation sequencing (NGS) is the cornerstone of next generation proteomics. Its specificity provides accurate protein measurements that promote an in-depth understanding of biology in clinical applications, shaping the future of translational medicine. We will discuss the goals and results of exploratory and integrated plasma proteomics studies that interrogate the host immune responses associated with active TB infection and identify potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers linked to disease and transmissibility.
Results: We report a study that performed proteomic analysis of individuals with active TB, latent TB, and healthy controls, and identified a 12-protein biomarker signature that was highly associated with active TB. The signature was corelated with TB disease severity and inflammation, and included IFNG, IL-6, and VEGFA, which have been previously associated with active TB. A second case study used Olink PEA technology to validate mass spectrometry-based differential protein expression in the plasma of individuals with pulmonary TB in an independent patient cohort. A 6-protein diagnostic panel differentiated patients with pulmonary TB from healthy controls and patients with other respiratory infections with high sensitivity and specificity.
Conclusion: By analyzing protein profiles in patient samples, these studies have identified biomarker signatures associated with active TB, disease severity, and differentiated patients with pulmonary TB from healthy controls and patients with other respiratory infections with high sensitivity and specificity across geographically diverse cohorts. Olink technology enables the discovery of novel biomarkers that could revolutionize the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of infectious diseases.