Tuberculosis (TB) is a major health problem in the developing world. 9 million new cases of TB and three million deaths are reported every year around the globe. The management of tuberculosis in the regions of developing countries urgently needs an efficient diagnostic test. DevR (also called DosR) is essential for promoting long-term survival of Mycobacterium tuberculosis under low oxygen conditions in a dormant state and may be responsible for latent tuberculosis in one-third of the world's population. The similarity in sequences of DevR in Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis has been already proved and hence Mycobacterium smegmatis is used as a model in present study for studying and evaluating the immunogenic properties of antigen DevR. Elimination of tuberculosis (TB) largely depends upon definitive rapid diagnosis and treatment. Widely used diagnostic methods do not qualify for use in a developing country due to lack of either desired accuracy and cost. In the present study ELISA was used to evaluate the diagnostic potential of an immuno-dominant antigen DevR from 36 BCG vaccinated and 12 non-vaccinated TB patients. 48 samples were collected from healthy control subjects. We have evaluated the diagnosis of tuberculosis, based on detection of anti-IgG antibodies in the TB patient's sera. The mean IgG antibody levels in sera of both BCG vaccinated (n=36) and non-vaccinated (n=12) patients with tuberculosis were significantly higher compared to the healthy donors (p<0.05). The results suggest that DevR could be possible candidate biomarker for effective use in the serodiagnosis of persistant tuberculosis infections.
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