Coinfection of Tuberculosis and COVID-19 Limits the Ability to in Vitro Respond to SARS-CoV-2

Overview

Journal Int J Infect Dis

Publisher Elsevier

Specialty Infectious Diseases

Date 2021 Mar 13

PMID 33713816

Citations 55

Authors

Linda Petrone

Elisa Petruccioli

Valentina Vanini

Gilda Cuzzi

Gina Gualano

Pietro Vittozzi

Emanuele Nicastri

Gaetano Maffongelli

Alba Grifoni

Alessandro Sette

Giuseppe Ippolito

Giovanni Battista Migliori

Fabrizio Palmieri

Delia Goletti

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objectives: The interaction of COVID-19 and tuberculosis (TB) are still poor characterized. Here we evaluated the immune response specific for Micobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and SARS-CoV-2 using a whole-blood-based assay-platform in COVID-19 patients either with TB or latent TB infection (LTBI).

Methods: We evaluated IFN-γ level in plasma from whole-blood stimulated with Mtb antigens in the Quantiferon-Plus format or with peptides derived from SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, Wuhan-Hu-1 isolate (CD4-S).

Results: We consecutively enrolled 63 COVID-19, 10 TB-COVID-19 and 11 LTBI-COVID-19 patients. IFN-γ response to Mtb-antigens was significantly associated to TB status and therefore it was higher in TB-COVID-19 and LTBI-COVID-19 patients compared to COVID-19 patients (p ≤ 0.0007). Positive responses against CD4-S were found in 35/63 COVID-19 patients, 7/11 LTBI-COVID-19 and only 2/10 TB-COVID-19 patients. Interestingly, the responders in the TB-COVID-19 group were less compared to COVID-19 and LTBI-COVID-19 groups (p = 0.037 and 0.044, respectively). Moreover, TB-COVID-19 patients showed the lowest quantitative IFN-γ response to CD4-S compared to COVID-19-patients (p = 0.0336) and LTBI-COVID-19 patients (p = 0.0178).

Conclusions: Our data demonstrate that COVID-19 patients either TB or LTBI have a low ability to build an immune response to SARS-CoV-2 while retaining the ability to respond to Mtb-specific antigens.

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