TY - JOUR A1 - Meier, Johannes P. A1 - Möbus, Selina A1 - Heigl, Florian A1 - Asbach-Nitzsche, Alexandra A1 - Niller, Hans Helmut A1 - Plentz, Annelie A1 - Avsar, Korkut A1 - Heiß-Neumann, Marion A1 - Schaaf, Bernhard A1 - Cassens, Uwe A1 - Seese, Bernd A1 - Teschner, Daniel A1 - Handzhiev, Sabin A1 - Graf, Uwe A1 - Lübbert, Christoph A1 - Steinmaurer, Monika A1 - Kontogianni, Konstantina A1 - Berg, Christoph A1 - Maieron, Andreas A1 - Blaas, Stefan H. A1 - Wagner, Ralf A1 - Deml, Ludwig A1 - Barabas, Sascha T1 - Performance of T-Track\(^®\) TB, a novel dual marker RT-qPCR-based whole-blood test for improved detection of active tuberculosis JF - Diagnostics N2 - Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of death by an infectious disease. It remains a major health burden worldwide, in part due to misdiagnosis. Therefore, improved diagnostic tests allowing the faster and more reliable diagnosis of patients with active TB are urgently needed. This prospective study examined the performance of the new molecular whole-blood test T-Track\(^®\) TB, which relies on the combined evaluation of IFNG and CXCL10 mRNA levels, and compared it to that of the QuantiFERON\(^®\)-TB Gold Plus (QFT-Plus) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Diagnostic accuracy and agreement analyses were conducted on the whole blood of 181 active TB patients and 163 non-TB controls. T-Track\(^®\) TB presented sensitivity of 94.9% and specificity of 93.8% for the detection of active TB vs. non-TB controls. In comparison, the QFT-Plus ELISA showed sensitivity of 84.3%. The sensitivity of T-Track\(^®\) TB was significantly higher (p < 0.001) than that of QFT-Plus. The overall agreement of T-Track\(^®\) TB with QFT-Plus to diagnose active TB was 87.9%. Out of 21 samples with discordant results, 19 were correctly classified by T-Track\(^®\) TB while misclassified by QFT-Plus (T-Track\(^®\) TB-positive/QFT-Plus-negative), and two samples were misclassified by T-Track\(^®\) TB while correctly classified by QFT-Plus (T-Track\(^®\) TB-negative/QFT-Plus-positive). Our results demonstrate the excellent performance of the T-Track\(^®\) TB molecular assay and its suitability to accurately detect TB infection and discriminate active TB patients from non-infected controls. KW - tuberculosis KW - TB KW - active TB KW - infection detection KW - T-Track\(^®\) TB KW - QuantiFERON\(^®\)-TB Gold Plus KW - mRNA KW - RT-qPCR KW - CXCL10 KW - IFNG Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-304113 SN - 2075-4418 VL - 13 IS - 4 ER - TY - THES A1 - Merzyn, Cornelia T1 - Modulation systemischer Chemokinspiegel durch rekombinantes Interferon-beta bei Patienten mit multipler Sklerose T1 - Modulation of systemic chemokine levels by recombinant interferon-beta in patients with multiple sclerosis N2 - Multiple Sklerose (MS) ist eine chronisch-entzündliche Erkrankung des Zentralen Nervensystems mit deutlich ausgeprägten Autoimmunphänomenen. Das derzeit meistverwendete Therapeutikum zur Sekundärprophylaxe von Krankheitsschüben ist rekombinantes Interferon-β (IFN-β). Wirk- und Nebenwirkungsmechanismen des Medikaments werden bisher nur partiell verstanden. In der Pathogenese der MS spielt eine Familie chemotaktisch wirksamer Zytokine, der Chemokine, eine entscheidende Rolle. Ziel dieser Studie war zu untersuchen, ob IFN-β die systemischen Konzentrationen der Pathogenese-relevanten Chemokine CXCL10, CCL2 und außerdem des endogenen Pyrogens IL-6 verändert, und ob diese Veränderungen mit dem Auftreten grippeartiger Nebenwirkungen korrelieren. Zu diesem Zweck wurden bei 37 Patienten mit schubförmiger MS zu drei Zeitpunkten – vor sowie 6 und 24 Stunden nach der Applikation von IFN-β – die genannten Botenstoffe im Blut bestimmt. Parallel wurden subjektiv empfundene grippeartige Nebenwirkungen mit Hilfe eines standardisierten Fragebogens abgefragt, und die Körperkerntemperatur wurde gemessen. Als Kontrollen dienten gesunde Probanden, derzeit nicht immunmodulatorisch behandelte MS-Patienten und MS-Patienten unter Therapie mit Glatirameracetat. Nur bei den mit IFN-β behandelten Patienten zeigte sich nach 6 Stunden ein signifikanter transienter Anstieg der Konzentrationen von CXCL10, CCL2. Der Anstieg der Chemokinkonzentrationen korrelierte mit einem transienten IL-6-Anstieg und dem Auftreten grippeartiger Nebenwirkungen. Chemokine, unter denen sich zahlreiche starke endogene Pyrogene befinden, könnten somit für die häufig zu beobachtenden grippeartigen Nebenwirkungen mit verantwortlich sein. Die Ergebnisse werfen die weiterführende Frage auf, ob die beobachtete Chemokininduktion auch relevant für den therapeutischen Effekt von IFN- ist. Ob Chemokine sich erfolgreich als Biomarker zur Prädiktion des Therapieerfolgs einsetzen lassen, wird derzeit in einem weiterführenden Projekt untersucht. N2 - Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system with clear autoimmune phenomena. Recombinant Interferon-β (IFN-β) is currently the most widely used treatment to prevent relapses. The mechanisms and side effects of the drug are only partially understood. A family of chemotactical active cytokines, the chemokines, play a decisive role in the pathogenesis of MS. The aim of this study was to examine if IFN-β alters the systemic concentrations of CXCL10 and CCL2, two chemokines that are relevant in the pathogenesis, and of IL-6, an endogenous pyrogen. A further aim was to discover whether these concentrations correlate with the appearance of flu-like symptoms, a common adverse effect of IFN-β. 37 patients with relapsing-remitting MS were tested three times to measure the chemokine concentrations in their blood – prior to IFN-β application, and again 6 and 24 hours after application. Concurrently, the occurrence of flu-like symptoms was recorded with the help of a standardized questionnaire and through body temperature measurements. The control groups consisted of healthy subjects, MS patients not receiving any treatment, and MS patients treated with glatiramer acetate. After 6 hours, only the MS patients treated with IFN-β showed a significant transient elevation in the concentrations of CXCL10 and CCL2. This elevation correlated with a transient increase in the IL-6 concentration and the appearance of flu-like symptoms. Among the chemokines there are many strong endogenous pyrogens, which might be responsible for the commonly observed, flu-like side effects of IFN-β. The results raise the question of whether the observed induction of chemokines is also relevant for the therapeutic effect of IFN-β. Whether chemokines can be used as biomarkers to predict therapeutic success is currently being explored in ongoing work built upon this study. KW - Multiple Sklerose KW - Interferon KW - Chemokine KW - CCL2 KW - CXCL10 KW - CCL2 KW - CXCL10 Y1 - 2008 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-35828 ER -