Diagnostic characteristics of Interleukin-2 among mycobacterium tuberculosis infected individuals in Rubaga Division, Kampala District

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) represents an important public health problem worldwide. In 2016, it was estimated that 9.6 million people developed TB and 1.5 million died from mycobacterium Tuberculosis infection. Only 5-15% of people infected with M. tuberculosis develop TB disease while others remain latently infected (LTBI) during their lifetime. Thus, the absence of tests able to distinguish between latent infection and active tuberculosis is one of the major limits of currently available diagnostic tools. A total of 70 subjects were included into the final analysis. Statistical analysis was performed to define the sensitivity and the specificity of the IL-2 in comparison with interferon gamma. Comparing the IL-2 and Interferon gamma amounts for the entire study group indicated differences in the cytokine amounts produced by remotely infected and recently infected individuals for latent TB and also for the positive and negative IGRA individuals hence indicating that the cytokine levels produced can be used to distinguish between LTBI individuals (P< 0.0001). The ROC analysis demonstrated a high accuracy for both interferon gamma and interleukin 2 with a strong positive correlation trend between the produced amounts of the two. By comparing the ROC curves, interleukin 2 can effectively replace interferon gamma as a diagnostic biomarker molecule once implemented using a highly sensitive assay due to its low production amounts in the body.