Comparison of interferon gamma and interferon gamma-inducible protein-10 secretion in HIV-tuberculosis patients

Interferon gamma (IFN gamma)-based in-vitro assays have suboptimal sensitivity, especially in immuno-compromised individuals, which emphasizes the need for alternative markers for tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis. We compared TB antigens-specific IFN gamma and IFN gamma-inducible protein-10 levels in culture of whole blood samples from HIV-TB patients. We report that IFN gamma-inducible protein-10 detects a greater number of HIV-TB cases than IFN gamma and suggest that IFN gamma-inducible protein-10 may be a better alternative marker for latent TB infection diagnosis among immunocompromised individuals.