BACKGROUND Although meningitis is the most severe form of infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the immunopathogenesis of this disease is poorly understood. We tested the hypothesis that polymorphisms in Toll-interleukin 1 receptor domain containing adaptor protein (TIRAP), an adaptor protein that mediates signals from Toll-like receptors activated by mycobacteria, are associated with...

INTRODUCTION Wasting is a systemic manifestation of tuberculosis (TB) and is often thought to affect the severity and outcome of the disease. Leptin and several cytokines/proteins are thought to play a role in the relationship between TB, nutritional status and host immune response. The aim of this study was to determine the association of C-reactive protein (CRP), an inflammatory response prot...

The lack of effective and accurate diagnostic tools contributes to the high prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) worldwide. The current serodiagnostics for TB are inadequate mainly due to lack of TB-specific antigens with highly accurate diagnosis. In the current study, we aimed to identify novel diagnostic antigens using glutathione S-transferase (GST)-fusion protein technique. We determined the re...

One of the aims of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Millennium Development Goals (MDG) is to reduce the number of cases of tuberculosis (TB) infection by the year 2015. However, 9 million new cases were reported in 2013, with an estimated 480,000 new cases of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) globally. Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is the most available and currently used candidate ...

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) can effectively differentiate the unfolded and folded aptamer, and quench the fluorescence of terbium ternary complexes (Tb-complexes), thus the authors herein report a sensitive strategy for protein detection, using label-free aptamer, Tb-complexes and GNPs. In the presence of thrombin, the aptamer is inclined to form G-quartet, and the folded aptamer cannot adsorb on...

Cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) forms two types of inclusion bodies within infected plant cells: numerous virus factories, which are the sites for viral replication and virion assembly, and a single transmission body (TB), which is specialized for virus transmission by aphid vectors. The TB reacts within seconds to aphid feeding on the host plant by total disruption and redistribution of its pr...

OBJECTIVES To determine the prevalence of antineutrophil cytoplasm autoantibodies (ANCA) and its antigenic specificities in sera of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (Tb) before and after treatment. PATIENTS AND METHODS Sixty-eight patients with culture-proven Tb were studied for the presence of ANCA, both by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) and ELISA against proteinase-3 (PR3), myelopero...

BACKGROUND This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of a whole-blood interferon-gamma release assay in inpatients who were admitted to the emergency department (ED) with pulmonary infiltrates who required a differential diagnosis with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). METHODS The patients with pulmonary infiltrates who received a QuantiFERON (QFT) test in the ED were included as an inp...

The urinary system is the second most commonly affected site of extrapulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Due to the diverse and atypical clinical manifestations of urinary TB, the disease is easy to misdiagnose. In the present study, two cases of renal TB are reported, which had completely different clinical manifestations. The first case is a female who presented with loin pain and fever. Purified pr...

Although IFN-γ release assays (IGRAs) provide increased specificity over tuberculin skin tests, the early and sensitive detection of reactivation of latently infected Mycobacterium tuberculosis is required to control tuberculosis (TB). Recently, a multicolor flow cytometry has been developed to study CD4(+) T cell cytokine responses (IFN-γ/IL-2/TNF-α) to purified protein derivatives (PPD) and M...