Nyendak, Melissa R.Byung, ParkNull, Megan D.Baseke, JoySwarbrick, GwendolynMayanja-Kizza, HarrietNsereko, MaryJohnson, Denise F.Gitta, PhineasOkwera, AlphonseGoldberg, StefanBozeman, LornaJohnson, John L.Boom, W. Henry2022-01-312022-01-312013Nyendak MR, Park B, Null MD, Baseke J, Swarbrick G, et al. (2013) Mycobacterium tuberculosis Specific CD8+ T Cells Rapidly Decline with Antituberculosis Treatment. PLoS ONE 8(12): e81564. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.008156410.1371/journal.pone.0081564https://nru.uncst.go.ug/xmlui/handle/123456789/1653Biomarkers 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. Objectives: We sought to determine the relationship of Mtb specific CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells with duration of antituberculosis treatment. Materials and Methods: 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-c ELISPOT at enrollment, week 8 and 24. Results: 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. Conclusions: 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.enMycobacterium tuberculosisCD8+ T CellsAntituberculosis TreatmentArticle