Identification of putative biomarkers for the serodiagnosis of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Background: early diagnosis and treatment of mycobacterium tuberculosis infection can prevent most deaths resulting from this pathogen; however,multidrug-resistant strains present serious threats to global tuberculosis control and prevention efforts. in this study,we identified antigens that could be used for the serodiagnosis of drug-resistant m. tuberculosis strains,using a proteomics-based analysis.results: serum from patients infected with drug-resistant or drug-susceptible m. tuberculosis strains and healthy controls was subjected to two-dimensional gel electrophoresis using a western blot approach. this procedure identified nine immunoreactive proteins,which were subjected to maldi-tof-ms analysis. six recombinant proteins,namely rrv2031c,rrv0444c,rrv2145c,rrv3692,rrv0859c,and rrv3040,were expressed and used to determine the immuno-reactivity of 100 serum samples. antibody reactivity against rrv2031c,rrv3692,and rrv0444c was consistently observed. among them,the best sensitivity and specificity of rrv3692 were 37% and 95% respectively. furthermore,when rrv2031c and rrv3692 or rrv2031c,rrv3692,and rrv0444c were combined in 2:1 or equal amounts,the assay sensitivity and specificity were improved to 56.7% and 100% respectively.conclusions: these results suggest that rv2031c,rv3692,and rv0444c are possible candidate biomarkers for effective use in the serodiagnosis of drug-resistant tuberculosis infections,and a combined formula of these antigens should be considered when designing a subunit assay kit. © 2012 zhang et al; licensee biomed central ltd.