ArticleInfection2023
Impaired T-cell response to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) in tuberculosis patients is associated with high IL-6 plasma levels and normalizes early during anti-mycobacterial treatment.
Article in Infection, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Blood Immunopathology of Tuberculosis Patients Disrupts Monocyte-Dependent T-Cell Activation and Cytokine Expression.Immunology · 2026Article
- Serum from patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma remodels the tumor immune escape ecological niche by promoting regulatory T‑cell differentiation and T‑cell exhaustion.Oncology reports · 2025Article
- Concomitant parasite infections influence tuberculosis immunopathology and favor rapid sputum conversion of pulmonary tuberculosis patients.Annals of clinical microbiology and antimicrobials · 2024Article
- Article
- Enhancement of mycobacterial pathogenesis by host interferon-γ.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2024Article
- Differences in PPD- and mitogen-induced T-cell activation marker expression characterize immunopathology in acute tuberculosis patients.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
19 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
purposeHuman tuberculosis is characterized by immunopathology that affects T-cell phenotype and functions. Previous studies found impaired T-cell response to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) in patients with acute tuberculosis. However, the influence of disease severity, affected T-cell subsets, and underlying mechanisms remain elusive.
methodsHere we investigated PHA-induced and antigen-specific T-cell effector cytokines in tuberculosis patients (n = 55) as well as in healthy asymptomatic contacts (n = 32) from Ghana. Effects of Mycobacterium (M.) tuberculosis sputum burden and treatment response were analyzed and compared during follow-up. Finally, cytokine characteristics of the aberrant plasma milieu in tuberculosis were analyzed as a potential cause for impaired PHA response.
resultsPHA-induced IFN-γ expression was significantly lower in sputum-positive tuberculosis patients as compared to both, contacts and paucibacillary cases, and efficiently discriminated the study groups. T-cell responses to PHA increased significantly early during treatment and this was more pronounced in tuberculosis patients with rapid treatment response. Analysis of alternative cytokines revealed distinct patterns and IL-22, as well as IL-10, showed comparable expression to IFN-γ in response to PHA. Finally, we found that high IL-6 plasma levels were strongly associated with impaired IFN-γ and IL-22 response to PHA.
conclusionWe conclude that impaired T-cell response to PHA stimulation in acute tuberculosis patients (i) was potentially caused by the aberrant plasma milieu, (ii) affected differentially polarized T-cell subsets, (iii) normalized early during treatment. This study shed light on the mechanisms of impaired T-cell functions in tuberculosis and yielded promising biomarker candidates for diagnosis and monitoring of treatment response.
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