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Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, November 2003, p. 1149-1152, Vol. 10, No. 6
1071-412X/03/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/CDLI.10.6.1149-1152.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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

Tuberculosis Research Centre (ICMR), Chennai, India

Received 9 May 2003/ Returned for modification 27 June 2003/ Accepted 25 July 2003

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.