Resposta Imune Humoral ao Antígeno rGroES do Mycobacterium tuberculosis em Pacientes com tuberculose e seus Contatos Domiciliares

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the most important public health problems of the world, with 8-10 million new cases and 2-3 million deaths each year. About 50 million people are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In order to develop immunodiagnostic tests for TB, several antigens have been tested for the humoral immune response of patients with active TB. ELISA was performed with plasma samples from 45 patients with pulmonary TB and 172 contacts (96 negative and 76 positive for the tuberculin skin test). The humoral immune response was evaluated through assessment of IgM and IgG antibodies against recombinant Mycobacterium tuberculosis GroES (MtGroEs). Patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis had higher levels of IgG anti-rGroEs than healthy individuals, allowing discrimination between the two groups.