Expression of mIRNA-142-3P in Peripheral Blood From Active and Latent Pulmonary Tuberculosis

This study aimed to asses miRNA-142-3p expression of active and latent pulmonary tuberculosis. 33 people with active Tuberculosis (TB), 36 household contacts who tested positive for IFN-released assay (IGRA), and 39 healthy controls made up this case-control study. Latent pulmonary tuberculosis infection in household contacts was identified using an IGRA based on an enzyme-linked immunosorbent test. miRNA-142-3p expression was measured by quantitative real-time PCR. Data analysis used analysed of variance and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The results showed that miRNA-142-3p expression differed significantly between active TB, latent TB and healthy participans (control p=<0.001). ROC curve analysis showed that miRNA-142-3p expression had 66.7% sensitivity and 61.5% specificity with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.725 ( 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.606 – 0.844) in active TB. The miRNA-142-3p ROC curve had 63.9% sensitivity and 51.3% specificity with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.603 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.475 - 0.730) for laten TB. miRNA-142-3p expression was increased in patients with active pulmonary TB. Therefore, miRNA-142-3p represents a potential biomarker active pulmonary TB but not to latent TB.