Identification of a novel immunodominant antigen Rv2645 from RD13 with potential as a cell-mediated immunity-based TB diagnostic agent

Summary Search for novel specific antigens are urgently needed for the detection of tuberculosis (TB). In this study, we evaluated the diagnostic potential of a novel Mycobacterium tuberculosis ( M.tb )-specific candidate antigen (Rv2645) from DNA segment region of differentiation (RD) 13 of M.tb and investigated T-cell recognition during natural infection in humans and experimental mice. Rv2645-specific IFN-γ levels were much higher in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of TB patients than that in healthy donors (HDs) (including Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG)-vaccinated donors). The enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISPOT) assay with Rv2645 had a high overall agreement (98.0%) with the results from the clinical T-SPOT.TB with 10-kD culture filtrate protein (CFP10) and 6-kD early secreted antigenic target (ESAT6) peptides. The combination of Rv2645 and CFP10-ESAT6 was better than the individual protein, with increased sensitivity and a similar specificity of 96.0% and 98.2%, respectively. Rv2654 also induced M.tb -specific skin-test responses in heat-inactivated M.tb H37Rv immunized mice. Epitope mapping revealed that Rv2645 30–44 and Rv2645 136 – 143 may be the dominant T-cell and B-cell epitopes, respectively, of Rv2645. This is the first report demonstrating the Rv2654 is a strongly recognized T-cell antigen that is highly specific for TB and has potential as a novel cell-mediated immunity-based TB diagnostic agent.