Culture filtrate protein 32 as a potential target to attenuate the heterogeneous antibody response against Mycobacterium tuberculosis Antigens in different endemic settings.

Background: We previously reported the development of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of the immunoglobulin G (IgG) response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis virulence factor - culture filtrate protein 32 (CFP32). The assay achieved high performance in comparing healthy Bacillus Calmette-Guerin-vaccinated controls with active tuberculosis (TB) patients from the Tunisian population. Herein, we aimed to assess the anti-CFP32 IgG response in suspected or confirmed active pulmonary TB individuals in different endemic settings. Methods: Serum samples were obtained from 224 donors from African and Latin American countries with variable levels of TB endemicity and different ethnical origins. Receiver operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate the performance of the serological assay. Results: The area under the curve was 0.70. The use of a cutoff level of 0.65 gave 67% and 68% sensitivity and specificity, respectively, regardless of ethnicity and endemicity. Except for the suspected Latin American group, overall multiple comparisons of medians pointed out the stability of the anti-CFP32 IgG response across the different endemic settings. Therefore, endemicity and ethnicity seem not to affect anti-CFP32 IgG response, mainly for detecting confirmed active TB individuals. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the inclusion of CFP32 epitopes in multi-antigen TB assay could attenuate serological differences related to heterogeneous endemicity and ethnicity. For this purpose, we further identified B-cell epitopes belonging to CFP32 by an in silico analysis.

[Deficient expression of leukocyte adhesion proteins. A new Tunisian case]. / Le défaut d'expression des protéines d'adhésion leucocytaire. A propos d'une nouvelle observation Tunisienne.

Leukocyte adhesion deficiency (LAD) is a rare primary immunodeficiency inherited as an autosomal recessive genetic disorder. LAD was suspected in a four days old girl. She was born from healthy first cousins. A family history of a boy who died from omphalitis and sepsis was reported. Our patient had the severe form, she had delayed umbilical cord separation and suffered recurrent infections. She had a deletion of the G at position 1497. The patient received bone marrow transplantation from her HLA-identical mother at age of 14 months. She is now 9 years old and in good health.