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  - JOUR
A1  - Wagner-Drouet, Eva
A1  - Teschner, Daniel
A1  - Wolschke, Christine
A1  - Schäfer-Eckart, Kerstin
A1  - Gärtner, Johannes
A1  - Mielke, Stephan
A1  - Schreder, Martin
A1  - Kobbe, Guido
A1  - Hilgendorf, Inken
A1  - Klein, Stefan
A1  - Verbeek, Mareike
A1  - Ditschkowski, Markus
A1  - Koch, Martina
A1  - Lindemann, Monika
A1  - Schmidt, Traudel
A1  - Rascle, Anne
A1  - Barabas, Sascha
A1  - Deml, Ludwig
A1  - Wagner, Ralf
A1  - Wolff, Daniel
T1  - Comparison of cytomegalovirus-specific immune cell response to proteins versus peptides using an IFN-γ ELISpot assay after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
JF  - Diagnostics
N2  - Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is a major cause of morbidity and mortality following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Measuring CMV-specific cellular immunity may improve the risk stratification and management of patients. IFN-γ ELISpot assays, based on the stimulation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells with CMV pp65 and IE-1 proteins or peptides, have been validated in clinical settings. However, it remains unclear to which extend the T-cell response to synthetic peptides reflect that mediated by full-length proteins processed by antigen-presenting cells. We compared the stimulating ability of pp65 and IE-1 proteins and corresponding overlapping peptides in 16 HSCT recipients using a standardized IFN-γ ELISpot assay. Paired qualitative test results showed an overall 74.4% concordance. Discordant results were mainly due to low-response tests, with one exception. One patient with early CMV reactivation and graft-versus-host disease, sustained CMV DNAemia and high CD8\(^+\) counts showed successive negative protein-based ELISpot results but a high and sustained response to IE-1 peptides. Our results suggest that the response to exogenous proteins, which involves their uptake and processing by antigen-presenting cells, more closely reflects the physiological response to CMV infection, while the response to exogenous peptides may lead to artificial in vitro T-cell responses, especially in strongly immunosuppressed patients.
KW  - CMV
KW  - CMV-specific cellular immunity
KW  - hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
KW  - recall antigen
KW  - peptide
KW  - immune monitoring
KW  - IFN-γ ELISpot
KW  - T cells
KW  - antigen processing and presentation
KW  - immunosuppression
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-228843
SN  - 2075-4418
VL  - 11
IS  - 2
ER  -