Advancements in tuberculosis diagnostics: An update

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the major life-threatening diseases caused by a single pathogen which has become a social menace owing to its high resistance. TB has even surpassed AIDS prior the COVID 19 pandemic. Every year the number of affected persons is increasing exponentially. In 2023 8.2 million new cases of TB were reported. There are various factors responsible for such infectivity rate of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) including emergence of rapid resistant strains, treatment failure and lack of proper diagnosis. In order to combat the infection, early and effective treatment of the infection is very crucial. This calls for the existence of effective and point of care (POC) diagnostic tool for successful management of the disease. The conventional diagnostics includes staining, microscopy, tuberculin skin test and chest X ray. However, they have various limitations which increases the public threat. These tools lack the ease of transportation, less sensitive, time consuming and lack accuracy. To eliminate such limitations and bridge the gap associated with the proper diagnosis of disease, various biochemical, molecular, immunological diagnostic tools have come up in rescue of the infection. These modern tools are potent enough in characterizing Mtb, detect mutations correlated with the existing medications and ensure effective management. In this article we are focusing on modern diagnostic tools such as T-SPOT, artificial intelligence, electronic nose, RT PCR, TB LAM, CRISPR, biosensor-based detection techniques including the conventional techniques for detection of Mtb in clinical setup in resource limited healthcare facilities for comprehensive diagnosis of tuberculosis.