Nyendak, Melissa R.Park, ByungNull, Megan D.Baseke, JoySwarbrick, GwendolynMayanja-Kizza4, HarrietNsereko, MaryJohnson, Denise F.Gitta, PhineasOkwera, AlphonseGoldberg, StefanBozeman, LornaJohnson, John L.Boom, W. HenryLewinsohn, Deborah A.Lewinsohn, David M.the Tuberculosis Research Unit and the Tuberculosis Trials Consortium2022-05-252022-05-252013Nyendak, M. R., Park, B., Null, M. D., Baseke, J., Swarbrick, G., Mayanja-Kizza, H., ... & Tuberculosis Research Unit and the Tuberculosis Trials Consortium. (2013). Mycobacterium tuberculosis specific CD8+ T cells rapidly decline with antituberculosis treatment. PLoS One, 8(12), e81564.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0081564https://nru.uncst.go.ug/handle/123456789/3311Biomarkers associated with response to therapy in tuberculosis could have broad clinical utility. We postulated that the frequency of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) specific CD8+ T cells, by virtue of detecting intracellular infection, could be a surrogate marker of response to therapy and would decrease during effective antituberculosis treatment. We sought to determine the relationship of Mtb specific CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells with duration of antituberculosis treatment. We performed a prospective cohort study, enrolling between June 2008 and August 2010, of HIV-uninfected Ugandan adults (n = 50) with acid-fast bacillus smear-positive, culture confirmed pulmonary TB at the onset of antituberculosis treatment and the Mtb specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses to ESAT-6 and CFP-10 were measured by IFN-γ ELISPOT at enrollment, week 8 and 24.There was a significant difference in the Mtb specific CD8+ T response, but not the CD4+ T cell response, over 24 weeks of antituberculosis treatment (p<0.0001), with an early difference observed at 8 weeks of therapy (p = 0.023). At 24 weeks, the estimated Mtb specific CD8+ T cell response decreased by 58%. In contrast, there was no significant difference in the Mtb specific CD4+ T cell during the treatment. The Mtb specific CD4+ T cell response, but not the CD8+ response, was negatively impacted by the body mass index.Our data provide evidence that the Mtb specific CD8+ T cell response declines with antituberculosis treatment and could be a surrogate marker of response to therapy. Additional research is needed to determine if the Mtb specific CD8+ T cell response can detect early treatment failure, relapse, or to predict disease progression.enArticle