Anti-tuberculosis (TB) chemotherapy dynamically rescues Th1 and CD8+ T effector levels in Han Chinese pulmonary TB patients

CD4+/CD8+ T cells play a major role in conferring immune protection against tuberculosis (TB), but it remains unknown how the immune responses of CD4+/CD8+ T cells exactly correlate with the clinical variables and disease statuses during anti-TB chemotherapy. To address this, several major immune parameters of CD4+/CD8+ T cells in peripheral blood derived from pulmonary TB patients and healthy volunteers were evaluated. We observed that active TB infection induced lower CD3+ T cell and CD4+ T cell levels but higher CD8+T cell levels, while anti-TB chemotherapy reversed these effects. Also, anti-TB treatment induced enhanced production of IL-2 and IFN-γ but reduced expression of IL-10 and IL-6. Moreover, the dynamic changes of CD3, CD4, and CD8 levels did not show a significant association with sputum smear positivity. However, the frequencies of IL-2+CD4+ or IL-10 + CD4+ T effector subpopulation or IL-1β production in peripheral blood showed significant difference between patients positive for sputum smear and patients negative for sputum smear after anti-TB treatment. These findings implicated that recovery of Th1/CD8+T cell effector levels might be critical immunological events in pulmonary TB patients after treatment and further suggested the importance of these immunological parameters as potential biomarkers for prediction of TB progress and prognosis.