Biomarkers for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis in adolescents: Peripheral blood monocyte myotubularin-related protein 4 and oncostatin M genes

Background/objectives

Although research has increasingly been focused on pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in adolescents, its diagnosis remains complex and challenging. Thus, the use of host transcription markers in the diagnosis of adolescent PTB was evaluated in this study.

Methods

The study cohort comprised 40 adolescents (aged 14–18 years) with PTB who had received their first PTB diagnosis at Anhui Provincial Chest Hospital, China, between January and December 2023 (case group) and 32 healthy adolescents who had undergone physical examinations at The First Affiliated Hospital of the University of Science and Technology of China during the same period (control group). Peripheral blood samples were collected from both groups, and isolated monocytes were subjected to transcriptome sequencing and bioinformatic analysis. The relevant genes were confirmed through quantitative polymerase chain reaction. The diagnostic value of these genes in adolescent PTB patients was analysed using receiver operating characteristic curves. Furthermore, an in vitro model was constructed by infecting THP-1 cells with the Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain H37Ra to assess whether the in vitro expression levels of the identified genes were consistent with those of the genes in the peripheral blood monocytes of adolescents with PTB. The specific mechanisms were explored using methods such as lentiviral infection, flow cytometry, immunofluorescence, Western blotting, and qRT‒PCR.

Results

The results revealed that the expression level of the myotubularin-related protein 4 gene (MTMR4) was lower in the case group than in the control group (P < 0.0001; area under the curve: 0.946; 95 % confidence interval: 0.893–0.999; cut-off value: 0.844; sensitivity: 0.875; specificity: 0.969). The expression level of the oncostatin M gene (OSM) was greater in the case group than in the control group (P = 0.014; area under the curve: 0.962; 95 % confidence interval: 0.914–1.000; cut-off value: 0.919; sensitivity: 0.950; specificity: 0.969). However, no significant between-group difference was detected in the expression level of the complement component 1q subcomponent A gene. The results from the in vitro experiment indicated that the expression levels of MTMR4 and OSM were consistent between the H37Ra-infected cells and the case group samples. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that cytokine–cytokine receptor interactions, JAK/STAT signalling and PI3K/cell survival-related pathways play key roles in the pathogenesis of adolescent PTB. Additionally, we found that H37Ra infection affected tuberculosis progression via the OSM/PI3K/GPX4 pathway.

Conclusions

Peripheral blood monocyte OSM and MTMR4 may serve as biomarkers of adolescent PTB. We speculate that targeting the OSM signalling pathway by knocking down OSM expression or inhibiting its ligand/receptor might be a strategy to reduce pulmonary tuberculosis-related tissue damage.