Antibody Fc Glycosylation Discriminates Between Latent and Active Tuberculosis

• Published in: The Journal of infectious diseases Vol. 222; no. 12; pp. 2093 - 2102
• Main Authors: Lu, Lenette L, Das, Jishnu, Grace, Patricia S, Fortune, Sarah M, Restrepo, Blanca I, Alter, Galit
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: US Oxford University Press 15.12.2020
• Subjects: Acyltransferases - analysis; Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Antibodies; Antigens; Antigens, Bacterial - analysis; Bacterial Proteins - analysis; Cell activation; Cytotoxicity; Electrophoresis, Capillary; Fab; Female; Glycosylation; Humans; Immunoglobulin Fab Fragments - chemistry; Immunoglobulin Fc Fragments - chemistry; Immunoglobulin G; Immunoglobulin G - analysis; Latent infection; Latent Tuberculosis - diagnosis; Major and Brief Reports; Male; Medical diagnosis; Middle Aged; Multivariate analysis; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Natural killer cells; Phagocytosis; Polysaccharides; Polysaccharides - analysis; Public health; Tuberculin; Tuberculin - analysis; Tuberculosis; Tuberculosis - diagnosis; glycosylation; diagnostics; antibodies; tuberculosis; Fc effector function
• ISSN: 0022-1899; 1537-6613; 1537-6613
• DOI: 10.1093/infdis/jiz643

Abstract Background Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains a global health problem and clinical management is complicated by difficulty in discriminating between latent infection and active disease. While M. tuberculosis-reactive antibody levels are heterogeneous, studies suggest that levels of IgG glycosylation differ between disease states. Here we extend this observation across antibody domains and M. tuberculosis specificities to define changes with the greatest resolving power. Methods Capillary electrophoretic glycan analysis was performed on bulk non-antigen–specific IgG, bulk Fc domain, bulk Fab domain, and purified protein derivative (PPD)- and Ag85A-specific IgG from subjects with latent (n = 10) and active (n = 20) tuberculosis. PPD-specific isotype/subclass, PPD-specific antibody-dependent phagocytosis, cellular cytotoxicity, and natural killer cell activation were assessed. Discriminatory potentials of antibody features were evaluated individually and by multivariate analysis. Results Parallel profiling of whole, Fc, and Fab domain-specific IgG glycosylation pointed to enhanced differential glycosylation on the Fc domain. Differential glycosylation was observed across antigen-specific antibody populations. Multivariate modeling highlighted Fc domain glycan species as the top discriminatory features, with combined PPD IgG titers and Fc domain glycans providing the highest classification accuracy. Conclusions Differential glycosylation occurs preferentially on the Fc domain, providing significant discriminatory power between different states of M. tuberculosis infection and disease. Clinical management of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is complicated by difficulty in discriminating between latent infection and active disease. Here profiling antibody features and multivariate modeling highlight Fc domain glycosylation as a top discriminatory feature.