AUTHOR=Lu Geng , Jiang XinRui , Wu Anni , Zhou Jiawei , Liu Hengjun , He Fei , Zhang Qiuling , Zen Ke , Gu Shuangshuang , Wang Jun 

TITLE=Two Small Extracellular Vesicle sRNAs Derived From Mycobacterium tuberculosis Serve as Diagnostic Biomarkers for Active Pulmonary Tuberculosis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2021.642559

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2021.642559

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=The rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) is of great significance for the TB control and treatment. However, the TB remains a major health, social and economic burden worldwide because of the lack of ideal diagnostic biomarkers. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) encoded small RNA (sRNA) is a class of regulation small RNA. Several studies have identified M. tuberculosis encoded sRNAs in the serum/plasm of M. tuberculosis infected patients. Exosomes are small membrane vesicles secreted by many cell types during physiological and pathological conditions. Recent evidence has indicated that most of the nucleic acids in the serum/plasma are packaged in the exosomes and could serve as ideal diagnostic biomarkers. In this study, we attempted a novel approach for TB diagnosis targeting exosomal M. tuberculosis encoded sRNA (sRNA) by qRT-PCR. The results showed M. tuberculosis encoded ASdes and MTB-miR5 only existed in the tuberculosis patients, and have the potential to serve as sensitive and accurate methodology for TB diagnosis.