Enhanced contact tracing and spatial tracking of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection by enumeration of antigen-specific T cells

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• 作者：Lalvani ; Ajit ; Pathan ; Ansar A. ; Durkan ; Helen ; Wilkinson ; Katalin A. ; Whelan ; Adam ; Deeks ; Jonathan J. ; et. al.
• 刊名：The Lancet
• 出版年：2001
• 出版时间：June 23, 2001
• 年：2001
• 卷：357
• 期：9273
• 页码：2017-2021
• 全文大小：103 K

文摘

Background Identification of individuals latently infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis is an important part of tuberculosis control. The current method, the tuberculin skin test (TST), has poor specificity because of the antigenic cross-reactivity of purified protein derivative (PPD) with M bovis BCG vaccine and environmental mycobacteria. ESAT-6 is a secreted antigen that is highly specific for M tuberculosis complex, but is absent from M bovis BCG. With an enzyme-linked immunospot (elispot) assay for interferon gamma, we have identified ESAT-6-specific T cells as an accurate marker of M tuberculosis infection.