title: Quantitative and qualitative profiles of circulating monocytes may help identifying tuberculosis infection and disease stages.
abstract: Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most important cause of morbidity and death among infectious diseases, and continuous efforts are needed to improve diagnostic tools and therapy. Previous published studies showed that the absolute cells number of monocytes or lymphocytes in peripheral blood or yet the ratio of monocytes to lymphocytes displayed the ability to predict the risk of active TB. In the present study we evaluated the ratio of monocytes to lymphocytes variation and we also analyzed the ex-vivo expression of CD64 on monocytes as tools to identify biomarkers for discriminating TB stages. Significant differences were found when the average ratio of monocytes to lymphocytes of active TB patients was compared with latent TB infection (LTBI) subjects, cured TB and healthy donors (HD). By the receiver operator characteristics (ROC) curve analysis the cut-off value of 0.285, allowed the discrimination of active TB from HD, with a sensitivity of 91.04% and a specificity of 93.55% (95% of confidence interval: 0.92-0.99). The ROC curve analysis comparing TB patients and LTBI groups, led to a sensitivity and the specificity of the assay of 85.07% and 85.71%, respectively (95% of confidence interval: 0.85 to 0.96). The upregulation of CD64 expression on circulating monocytes in active TB patients could represent an additional biomarker for diagnosis of active TB. In conclusion, we found that the ML ratio or monocyte absolute count or phenotypic measures show predictive value for active TB.
authors.affiliation: Central Laboratory of Advanced Diagnosis and Biomedical Research(CLADIBIOR), Azienda Universitaria Ospedaliera Policlinico P. Giaccone, Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco Pio
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: La Manna
authors.affiliation: Central Laboratory of Advanced Diagnosis and Biomedical Research(CLADIBIOR), Azienda Universitaria Ospedaliera Policlinico P. Giaccone, Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Orlando
authors.affiliation: Central Laboratory of Advanced Diagnosis and Biomedical Research(CLADIBIOR), Azienda Universitaria Ospedaliera Policlinico P. Giaccone, Palermo, Italy.|Dipartimento di Biopatologia e Biotecnologie Mediche, Università di Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dieli
authors.affiliation: Department of Sciences for Health Promotion and Mother-Child Care "G. D'Alessandro", University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Di Carlo
authors.affiliation: Department of Sciences for Health Promotion and Mother-Child Care "G. D'Alessandro", University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cascio
authors.affiliation: Translational Research Unit, National Institute for Infectious Diseases L. Spallanzani, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Gilda
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cuzzi
authors.affiliation: Translational Research Unit, National Institute for Infectious Diseases L. Spallanzani, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Palmieri
authors.affiliation: Translational Research Unit, National Institute for Infectious Diseases L. Spallanzani, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Delia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Goletti
authors.affiliation: Central Laboratory of Advanced Diagnosis and Biomedical Research(CLADIBIOR), Azienda Universitaria Ospedaliera Policlinico P. Giaccone, Palermo, Italy.|Dipartimento di Biopatologia e Biotecnologie Mediche, Università di Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1018-5710
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Caccamo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009000:Monocytes / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology*; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D010641:Phenotype; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000097:blood / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers