This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Koh, K. W.
Right arrow Articles by Seah, G. T.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Koh, K. W.
Right arrow Articles by Seah, G. T.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Infection and Immunity, August 2009, p. 3337-3343, Vol. 77, No. 8
0019-9567/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.01175-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Strong Antibody Responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis PE-PGRS62 Protein Are Associated with Latent and Active Tuberculosis{triangledown}

Kah Wee Koh,1,2 Shu E Soh,1,{dagger} and Geok Teng Seah1,2*

Department of Microbiology,1 Immunology Programme, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117597, Singapore2

Received 22 September 2008/ Returned for modification 26 November 2008/ Accepted 21 May 2009

Mycobacterium tuberculosis has a unique family of PE-PGRS proteins with conserved N-terminal domains (PE) containing site-specific proline-glutamine residues and polymorphic GC-rich repetitive sequences (PGRS). Tuberculosis (TB) patients produce antibodies against some such proteins, but it is not clear whether these responses correlate with disease. Clinical groups with different mycobacterium exposure were studied for their seroreactivity to PE-PGRS17 and PE-PGRS62 proteins and their respective PE domains. There were minimal antibody responses against both PE domains and full-length PE-PGRS17, even in patients with active TB. However, patients with active and latent TB showed significantly higher PE-PGRS62-specific immunoglobulin G antibody responses than treated TB patients and mycobacterium-reactive TB contacts without latent infection. Latently infected persons had high anti-PE-PGRS62 responses but low responses to the 38-kDa antigen commonly used for TB serology, while treated TB cases showed the opposite response. Thus, patterns of seroreactivity to PE-PGRS62 correlate with clinical status and are associated with latent TB infection.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, National University of Singapore, MD4, 5 Science Drive 2, Singapore 117597, Singapore. Phone: (65)-65163288. Fax: (65)-67766872. E-mail: micsgt{at}nus.edu.sg

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 1 June 2009.

Editor: J. L. Flynn

{dagger} Present address: Department of Paediatrics, National University of Singapore, Singapore.

Infection and Immunity, August 2009, p. 3337-3343, Vol. 77, No. 8
0019-9567/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/IAI.01175-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»