The identification of individuals with the greatest risk of progression to active tuberculosis (TB) disease from the huge reservoir of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infected individuals continues to remain an arduous ascent in the global effort to control TB. In a two-year prospective study, we analysed metabolic profiles in the unstimulated and TB antigen stimulated QuantiFERON supernatants of 14 healthy household contacts (HHCs) who progressed to TB disease (Progressors) and 14 HHCs who remained healthy (Non-Progressors). We identified 21 significantly dysregulated metabolites in the TB antigen-stimulated QuantiFERON supernatants of Progressors, of which the combination of Malic acid and N-Arachidonoylglycine had maximum AUC of 0.99. Eighteen significantly dysregulated metabolites were identified in the unstimulated QuantiFERON supernatants of Progressors, among which the combination of Orotic acid and the phosphatidylcholines PC (O-34:1), PC (O-18:1(9Z)/16:0), PC (O-18:1(11Z)/16:0) had the maximum AUC of 0.98. Most of the dysregulated metabolites belonged to the pathways of fatty acid metabolism, lipid metabolism and nitric oxide metabolism. Validation of these metabolic signatures in large, diverse cohorts would pave way for the development of a robust test that can identify individuals at high risk of TB for targetted intervention of TB disease.
Keywords: Metabolites; QuantiFERON supernatant; biomarkers; diagnosis; metabolite signatures; progression; tuberculosis.