The immune characterization of IFN-β responses in tuberculosis patients.

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The immune characterization of IFN-β responses in tuberculosis patients.

Microbiol Immunol. 2018 Mar 05;:

Authors: Zhang X, Sun Y, He C, Qiu X, Zhou D, Ye Z, Long Y, Tang T, Su X, Ma J

Abstract
We aimed to assess the immunoregulatory effects of IFN-β in patients with tuberculous pleurisy. IFN-β, IFN-γ and IL-17 expression levels were detected, and correlations among these factors in different culture groups were analyzed. Pleural fluid mononuclear cells (PFMCs) from tuberculous pleural effusions, but not peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy donors, spontaneously expressed IFN-β, IL-17 and IFN-γ. Moreover, exogenous IFN-β significantly inhibited the expression of IL-17 in PFMCs. By contrast, IFN-β simultaneously enhanced the levels of IFN-γ. To further investigate the regulation of IL-17 and IFN-γ by endogenous IFN-β, an IFN-β neutralizing antibody was simultaneously added to BCG-stimulated PFMCs. IL-17 expression was significantly increased, but IFN-γ production was markedly decreased in the experimental group supplemented with the IFN-β neutralizing antibody. Simultaneously, IL-17 production was remarkably increased in the experimental group supplemented with the IFN-γ neutralizing antibody. Taken together, in our study, we first found that freshly isolated PFMCs, but not PBMCs from healthy donors, spontaneously expressed IFN-β, IL-17 and IFN-γ in vivo. Moreover, IFN-β suppressed IL-17 expression and increased IFN-γ production. Furthermore, both IFN-β and IFN-γ downregulated IL-17 expression. These observations suggest that caution is required when basing anti-TB treatment on the inhibition of IFN-β signaling.

PMID: 29504148 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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