Rajavelu, Priya and Das, Sulochana D
(2003)
Cell-Mediated Immune Responses of Healthy Laboratory Volunteers
to Sonicate Antigens Prepared from the Most Prevalent Strains of
Mycobacterium tuberculosis from South India Harboring a Single
Copy of IS6110.
Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, 10 (6).
pp. 1149-1152.
ISSN Print: 1556-6811; Online: 1556-679X
Abstract
Our restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) studies have shown that the most prevalent (40%)
strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from South India contain a single copy of the IS6110 insertion sequence
and are of importance in studying virulence and immunity. Sonicate antigens from seven such strains were
used to study in vitro T-cell proliferation and gamma interferon (IFN-�) and interleukin-12 (IL-12) secretion
as markers of protective immunity in 25 healthy subjects positive for purified protein derivative (PPD). The
standard PPD and heat-killed H37Rv antigens induced the maximum levels of T-cell proliferation and IFN-�
secretion but low levels of IL-12. All sonicate antigens induced T-cell proliferation and IFN-� secretion with
strong positive correlation. Our results suggest that sonicate antigens from the most prevalent and recent
strains of M. tuberculosis from clinical isolates have the potential to induce T-cell activation and may allow
newer and specific antigens to be further characterized for diagnosis and vaccine development.
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