Antibody response to mycobacterial Rpf B protein and its immunodominant peptides in HIV-TB co-infected individuals.

Diagnosis of TB at early stages of HIV infection may lead to timely intervention for improving patient outcome. Antibodies to Mycobacterium tuberculosis recombinant RpfB protein and two immunodominant peptides of Rpf B protein were evaluated in the sera of HIV TB, HIV and HIV pulmonary TB patients by ELISA. Serum antibodies from 90 % and 65 % of HIVTB patients reacted to recombinant RpfB protein and synthetic peptide RpfP1 respectively. Overall, this study shows that resuscitation promoting factor B elicits humoral antibody response in HIVTB co-infected individuals and be proposed as a potential biomarker for diagnosis of HIVTB patients, however further longitudinal follow up studies are warranted.