Rationale:
There is poor understanding about protective immunity and the pathogenesis of cavitation in patients with tuberculosis.
Objectives:
To map pathophysiological pathways at anatomically distinct positions within the human tuberculosis cavity.
Methods:
Biopsies were obtained from eight predetermined locations within lung cavities of patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis undergoing therapeutic surgical resection (
n
= 14) and healthy lung tissue from control subjects without tuberculosis (
n
= 10). RNA sequencing, immunohistochemistry, and bacterial load determination were performed at each cavity position. Differentially expressed genes were normalized to control subjects without tuberculosis, and ontologically mapped to identify a spatially compartmentalized pathophysiological map of the cavity.
In silico
perturbation using a novel distance-dependent dynamical sink model was used to investigate interactions between immune networks and bacterial burden, and to integrate these identified pathways.
Measurements and Main Results:
The median (range) lung cavity volume on positron emission tomography/computed tomography scans was 50 cm
3
(15–389 cm
3
). RNA sequence reads (31% splice variants) mapped to 19,049 annotated human genes. Multiple proinflammatory pathways were upregulated in the cavity wall, whereas a downregulation “sink” in the central caseum–fluid interface characterized 53% of pathways including neuroendocrine signaling, calcium signaling, triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1, reactive oxygen and nitrogen species production, retinoic acid–mediated apoptosis, and RIG-I-like receptor signaling. The mathematical model demonstrated that neuroendocrine, protein kinase C-θ, and triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 pathways, and macrophage and neutrophil numbers, had the highest correlation with bacterial burden (
r
> 0.6), whereas T-helper effector systems did not.
Conclusions:
These data provide novel insights into host immunity to
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
–related cavitation. The pathways defined may serve as useful targets for the design of host-directed therapies, and transmission prevention interventions.