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. 2019 Oct 29;9:372. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2019.00372

Table 2.

Studies reporting IDO activity or either kynurenine or tryptophan in human active TB disease.

References Participant demographics Sample type Method of IDO
quantification
Major conclusion (s)
Almeida et al. (2009) TB cases (n = 30)
HIV+, active TB disease (n = 4)
Other lungs diseases (No-TB, HIV– n = 11), Healthcare workers (n = 16)
Induced Sputum RT-PCR Active TB patients expressed significantly higher IDO compared with patients with other lung disease and health care workers.
IDO expression declined over 500-fold change 15 days post-treatment with anti-TB medication.
Li et al. (2011) TB cases (n = 31)
Controls (n = 35)
Pleural effusion Cell culture Inhibiting IDO reversed cytokine production and restored T cell functions in vitro.
Weiner 3rd et al. (2012) Active TB cases (n = 44)
LTBI (TST+) (n = 46)
No-TB (TST-) (n = 46)
Blood UPLC/GC–MS/MS Cell culture Metabolic profiles showed IDO activity increased in TB pathogenesis.
Suzuki et al. (2012) TB case (n = 174)
Controls (n = 85)
Serum LC-MS/MS Patients with pulmonary TB has elevated serum IDO activity compared to controls.
Higher IDO activity independently predicted death of TB patients.
Suzuki et al. (2013) TB cases (n = 92)
TB pleurisy (n = 34), Malignant pleuritis (n = 36)
Parapneumonic effusion (n = 15)
Pleural effusion LC-MS/MS IDO activity may be strongly involved in the pathogenesis of TB pleurisy.
IDO activity holds diagnostic significance in TB pleurisy.
Feng et al. (2015) TB cases (n = 120)
Non-TB (n = 146)
Healthy controls (n = 105)
Blood UPLC-MS Kynurenine and quinolinic acid, which are products of IDO-mediated tryptophan metabolism were among 20 metabolic profiles that indicated active TB disease.
Adu-Gyamfi et al. (2017) TB-HIV cases (n = 32)
Controls (HIV+, No-TB) (n = 70)
Pneumonia (HIV positive) (n = 37)
Plasma UPLC-MS/MS IDO activity is a plausible diagnostic active TB in HIV infected patients.
IDO activity predicted active TB disease months ahead of major TB symptoms, IDO activity declined in all patients after standard TB treatment.
Van Laarhoven et al. (2018) Discovery cohort:
TBM, HIV– patients (n = 33)
Controls (n = 22)
Validation cohort:
TBM patients (n = 101)
Controls (HIV-, no TBM) (n = 17)
CSF and Serum UPLC-MS/MS Increased tryptophan metabolites were found among TB meningitis patients, and it correlated strongly with mortality.
Shi et al. (2019) Drug susceptible TB cases (n = 16)
MDR-TB cases (n = 16),
Controls (No-TB n = 11, Lung cancer n = 6)
No patient or control had HIV infection.
Plasma LC-MS/MS Plasma IDO activity could distinguish multi-drug resistance—TB (MDR-TB) from drug-susceptible TB and lung cancer. Higher plasma IDO activity can indicate a higher risk of MDR-TB.

Tuberculosis (TB), Tuberculous meningitis (TBM), Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), latent Tuberculosis infection (LTBI), Positive (+), Negative (–), High-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS), Ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS), Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).