Researchers in the UC Davis Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine developed a new tuberculosis (TB) blood test designed to identify the active, infectious form of the disease. The discovery aims to enable faster diagnosis and treatment while helping prevent the spread of TB by quickly identifying contagious individuals.<\/p>\n
Current TB screening tests<\/a> do not differentiate between active TB disease and a latent, or inactive, infection. While TB is caused by the bacterium<\/a> Mycobacterium tuberculosis, only those with active infections can spread the disease through coughing, sneezing, or speaking.<\/p>\n \u201cAbout 35% to 40% of the general population in TB endemic countries<\/a> is latently infected\u2014meaning they have been exposed\u2014but they may never develop TB,\u201d says Imran H Khan<\/a>, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, in a release. \u201cA test that gives a positive result with latent infection is not useful in finding active TB cases, in which someone might have the disease and inadvertently spread it to others.\u201d<\/p>\n Addressing Diagnostic Limitations<\/p>\n Existing diagnostic tools often require additional follow-up testing after a positive result. Sputum tests<\/a>, for example, can miss TB located outside of the lungs and are often difficult to obtain from children.<\/p>\n The new blood test measures the immune system\u2019s response to TB proteins, similar to the interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA). However, unlike the IGRA, this test specifically detects antibodies<\/a> associated with active tuberculosis. This allows clinicians to identify patients who are currently sick and contagious rather than those who have simply been exposed to the bacteria in the past.<\/p>\n \u201cTB is often a disease of poverty, especially in developing countries,\u201d says Khan in a release. \u201cAnd like most other poverty-related problems, it is a major cause of human suffering worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n Clinical Trial Performance<\/p>\n The effectiveness of the test was evaluated in a clinical trial in India from 2019 to 2023, involving more than 600 participants. Results indicated that the test performed well in identifying adult pulmonary TB, which accounts for approximately 60% to 70% of infections.<\/p>\n \u201cThe test performed surprisingly well,\u201d says Khan in a release. \u201cIn addition to the expected good performance in adult pulmonary TB\u2026it was also able to identify harder-to-detect TB cases in children as well as TB that was in other organs in the body, not in the lungs.\u201d<\/p>\n Data analysis and a clinical trial report have been submitted to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). If approved by the ICMR, the test could be expanded to neighboring countries. According to Khan, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh alone account for approximately 30% to 40% of the global TB population.<\/p>\n To commercialize the technology, Khan co-founded AppGenex Diagnostics, a startup based in Mountain View, California.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we can stop the spread of TB by more easily identifying active infections, we can make a significant difference in decreasing global numbers of this devastating disease,\u201d says Khan, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, in a release.<\/p>\n ID 449785790<\/a> | Lab<\/a> \u00a9 Dragoscondrea<\/a> | Dreamstime.com<\/a><\/p>\n Related Reading:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers in the UC Davis Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine developed a new tuberculosis (TB) blood test…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[19724,163,85,38750,6872,178658,46,178659,20646,33215],"class_list":{"0":"post-371812","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-blood-test","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-infection-prevention","12":"tag-infectious-disease","13":"tag-infectious-disease-testing","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-sputum-pooling","16":"tag-tuberculosis","17":"tag-uc-davis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}