Active latent pulmonary tuberculosis: which one is the appropriate distinguishing biomarker?

This study tried to assess the possibility of using the estimated levels of plasma expression of microRNAs (miR-) for distinguishing healthy subjects with latent pulmonary tuberculosis (LTB) from healthy controls (HC) and patients with active tuberculosis (ATB). Study participants included 30 newly diagnosed ATB patients, 30 of the households of ATB patients who were free of clinical manifestations, had normal chest radiography but had positive results on the whole-blood QuantiFERON tuberculosis (TB) Gold In-Tube (QFT-GIT) test (LTB patients), and 30 HC who were free of clinical symptoms and showed normal chest X-rays and negative QFT-GIT tests. All participants gave blood samples for quantitation of the plasma expression levels of miR- using the reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction.