Singapore Ocular Tuberculosis Immunity Study (SPOTIS): Role of T-lymphocyte Profiling in Patients with Presumed Ocular Tuberculosis

ABSTRACT

Objective: A prospective clinical study to assess the utility of CD4 + T cell lymphocyte profiling from peripheral blood in patients with ocular tuberculosis (TB).

Methods: Thirty-six Asian patients with presumed diagnosis of ocular TB were recruited for T-lymphocyte profiling. MTB antigen specific CD4 assay was set up, and flow cytometric data were analyzed using FlowJo software.

Results: There was no significant difference between treatment responders and non-responders for the proportion of CD4 + T cells specific for PPD or ESAT-6+ CFP-10, but treatment responders did have significantly higher frequency of CD38+ (p = .0357) and CD38+ HLA-DR+ (p = .0357) on the PPD-specific CD4 + T cells.

Conclusion: This study is one of the first of its kind to look into MTB specific T cell activation marker profiling of peripheral blood in patients with ocular TB. Further studies need to be undertaken to assess the utility of CD4 + T cell phenotypes as a biomarker for ocular TB.

KEYWORDS:

• Tubercular uveitis₁
• ocular tuberculosis₂
• tuberculosis₃
• cell-mediated immune response₄
• t lymphocytes₅
• t cell₆

Acknowledgments

This abstract was presented as a poster presentation at The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) 2019.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

Tan Tock Seng Hospital Personalised Medicine Seed Funding Programme 2015 (PMSFP 05-2015-05), Singapore National Eye Centre Health Research Endowment Fund (R1202/8/2015).