Fluid and plasma levels of antimicrobial peptides in patients with pulmonary or pleural tuberculosis at diagnosis and throughout specific treatment

BETTINA BONGIOVANNI; LUCIANO D'ATILLIO; SARA MARÍN-LUÉVANO; ARIANA DIAZ; NATALIA SANTUCCI; ROCÍO DEL VALLE FERNÁNDEZ; DIEGO BÉRTOLA; MARÍA L. BAY; MARCELA MARCHESINI; BRUNO RIVAS-SANTIAGO; OSCAR BOTTASSO

Congreso; Reunión Conjunta SAIC SAI SAFIS 2018; 2018

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most important infectious diseasesworldwide. Our previous studies in patients with pulmonary TB(PTB) or pleural TB (PLTB) showed an immune-endocrine imbalanceless pronounced in the latter group. Based on the role of antimicrobialpeptides like cathelicidin (LL37) and human β-defensinstype 2 (HBD2) and 3 (HBD3) in the antimycobacterial response, thepresent study analyzed: 1) the levels of these peptides in plasmaof PTB and PLTB patients as well as in the pleural fluid of the latterpatient group; 2) the possible correlations of these peptide concentrationswith levels of adrenal steroids in both compartments. Thesample consisted of 30 healthy controls (HCo), 29 age- and sexmatchedTB -HIV negative patients bled at diagnosis (T0) as wellas two (T2) and six months (T6) after treatment initiation and 10untreated PLTB patients (plasma and fluid collection).Severe PTB patients showed increased HBD2 and HBD3 levelsat T0 (p