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The assessment of host and bacterial proteins in sputum from active pulmonary tuberculosis

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Abstract

Pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The protein composition of sputum may reflect the immune status of the lung. This study aimed to evaluate the protein profiles in spontaneous sputum samples from patients with active pulmonary TB. Sputum samples were collected from patients with pulmonary TB and healthy controls. Western blotting was used to analyze the amount of interleukin 10 (IL-10), interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), IL-25, IL-17, perforin-1, urease, albumin, transferrin, lactoferrin, adenosine deaminase (also known as adenosine aminohydrolase, or ADA), ADA-2, granzyme B, granulysin, and caspase-1 in sputum. Results of detection of IL-10, IFN-γ, perforin-1, urease, ADA2, and caspase-1, showed relatively high specificity in distinguishing patients with TB from healthy controls, although sensitivities varied from 13.3% to 66.1%. By defining a positive result as the detection of any two proteins in sputum samples, combined use of transferrin and urease as markers increased sensitivity to 73.2% and specificity to 71.1%. Furthermore, we observed that the concentration of transferrin was proportional to the number of acid-fast bacilli detected in sputum specimens. Detection of sputum transferrin and urease was highly associated with pulmonary TB infection. In addition, a high concentration of transferrin detected in sputum might correlate with active TB infection. This data on sputum proteins in patients with TB may aid in the development of biomarkers to assess the severity of pulmonary TB.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Biotechnology and Laboratory Science, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, R.O.C.

    Hsin-Chih Lai

  2. Department of Laboratory Medicine and Chang Gung Immunology Consortium, Chang Gung Memorial hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan, R.O.C.

    Hsin-Chih Lai

  3. Research Center for Industry of Human Ecology and Graduate Institute of Health Industry Technology, Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, Taoyuan, Taiwan, R.O.C.

    Hsin-Chih Lai

  4. Department of Laboratory Medicine and Biotechnology, Tzu Chi University, College of Medicine, Hualien, Taiwan, R.O.C.

    Yu-Tze Horng & Po-Chi Soo

  5. Department of Internal Medicine, Cheng Hsin Rehabilitation Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

    Pen-Fang Yeh

  6. Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.

    Jann-Yuan Wang & Chin-Chung Shu

  7. Department of Respiratory Therapy, College of Medicine, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City, Taiwan, R.O.C.

    Chia-Chen Lu

  8. Graduate Institute of Medical Biotechnology and Laboratory Science, College of Medicine, Chang-Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, R.O.C.

    Jang-Jih Lu

  9. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan, R.O.C.

    Jang-Jih Lu

  10. Department of Internal Medicine, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital and Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan, R.O.C.

    Jen-Jyh Lee

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  1. Hsin-Chih Lai
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Correspondence to Po-Chi Soo.

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Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://www.springerlink.com/content/120956

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12275_2016_6201_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Western blot analysis of IL-10, IFN-γ, IL-25, IL-17, perforin-1, albumin, lactoferrin, ADA, ADA2, granzyme B, granulysin and caspase-1 in sputum samples from five randomly selected patients with TB.

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Lai, HC., Horng, YT., Yeh, PF. et al. The assessment of host and bacterial proteins in sputum from active pulmonary tuberculosis. J Microbiol. 54, 761–767 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12275-016-6201-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12275-016-6201-x

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