Coinfection of tuberculosis and COVID-19 limits the ability to in vitro respond to SARS-CoV-2

• Published in: International journal of infectious diseases Vol. 113; pp. S82 - S87
• Main Authors: Petrone, Linda, Petruccioli, Elisa, Vanini, Valentina, Cuzzi, Gilda, Gualano, Gina, Vittozzi, Pietro, Nicastri, Emanuele, Maffongelli, Gaetano, Grifoni, Alba, Sette, Alessandro, Ippolito, Giuseppe, Migliori, Giovanni Battista, Palmieri, Fabrizio, Goletti, Delia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Canada Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2021; The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases; Elsevier
• Subjects: Antigens, Bacterial - immunology; Antigens, Viral - immunology; Co-infection; Coinfection; COVID-19; COVID-19 - immunology; Humans; IFN-gamma response; Interferon-gamma - immunology; M. tuberculosis; SARS-CoV-2; Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus; Tuberculosis; Tuberculosis - immunology; Whole blood assay; COVID-19; Tuberculosis; Co-infection; IFN-gamma response; M. tuberculosis; Whole blood assay
• ISSN: 1201-9712; 1878-3511; 1878-3511
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2021.02.090

•TB and COVID-19 coinfection does not affect M. tuberculosis-specific response.•TB and COVID-19 coinfection limits the ability to in vitro respond to SARS-CoV-2.•Latent TB infection does not affect the ability to in vitro respond to SARS-CoV-2. The interaction of COVID-19 and tuberculosis (TB) are still poor characterized. Here we evaluated the immune response specific for Micobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and SARS-CoV-2 using a whole-blood-based assay-platform in COVID-19 patients either with TB or latent TB infection (LTBI). We evaluated IFN-γ level in plasma from whole-blood stimulated with Mtb antigens in the Quantiferon-Plus format or with peptides derived from SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, Wuhan-Hu-1 isolate (CD4-S). We consecutively enrolled 63 COVID-19, 10 TB-COVID-19 and 11 LTBI-COVID-19 patients. IFN-γ response to Mtb-antigens was significantly associated to TB status and therefore it was higher in TB-COVID-19 and LTBI-COVID-19 patients compared to COVID-19 patients (p ≤ 0.0007). Positive responses against CD4-S were found in 35/63 COVID-19 patients, 7/11 LTBI-COVID-19 and only 2/10 TB-COVID-19 patients. Interestingly, the responders in the TB-COVID-19 group were less compared to COVID-19 and LTBI-COVID-19 groups (p = 0.037 and 0.044, respectively). Moreover, TB-COVID-19 patients showed the lowest quantitative IFN-γ response to CD4-S compared to COVID-19-patients (p = 0.0336) and LTBI-COVID-19 patients (p = 0.0178). Our data demonstrate that COVID-19 patients either TB or LTBI have a low ability to build an immune response to SARS-CoV-2 while retaining the ability to respond to Mtb-specific antigens.