Assessment of Interferon Gamma-Induced Protein 10 mRNA Release Assay for Detection of Latent Tuberculosis Infection in Egyptian Pediatric Household Contacts

Objectives Current diagnostic tests for tuberculosis (TB) in children living in low-endemic countries are limited by low specificity and the inability of the current tests to differentiate between active TB and latent TB infection (LTBI). This study aimed to evaluate the blood IP-10 mRNA expression level to detect LTBI in Egyptian pediatric household contacts (PHC). Methods TB-specific IP-10 and IFN-γ mRNA levels were assessed by real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) in 72 Egyptian PHC of active pulmonary TB cases. All study participants were also assessed by Tuberculin Skin Test (TST) and Quantiferon gold in tube (QFN-GIT) assay. Results IP-10 and IFN-γ mRNA expression levels were significantly higher in PHC with active TB or LTBI than TB negative (p Conclusion Blood IP-10 mRNA expression level may be a potential diagnostic marker to help distinguish active TB from LTBI in PHC.