Inflammatory Biomarkers of Asymptomatic and Symptomatic Tuberculosis

This dataset contains the serum protein expression data analysed for the article “Inflammatory Biomarkers of Asymptomatic and Symptomatic Tuberculosis” (doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.10.26.684319). The study characterized the biology of asymptomatic tuberculosis (TB) by analyzing blood transcriptomic and proteomic data from South African cohorts. The study characterized the biology of asymptomatic tuberculosis, revealing that it shares core inflammatory features with symptomatic disease, including upregulated innate immune and inflammatory pathways. However, the identification of two distinct sub-clusters within asymptomatic individuals - differing in bacterial burden, immune response, and clinical severity - points to underlying differences in disease state. The study subsequently derived a new blood transcriptomic signature for asymptomatic TB. The work demonstrated that existing diagnostic biomarkers, developed for symptomatic TB, performed poorly in detecting asymptomatic compared to symptomatic cases, highlighting a major limitation for their use in community screening.
The protein data herein were measured using Bio-Plex multiplex bead arrays on the Bio-Plex platform (Bio- Rad Laboratories, CA, USA). Samples from the RePORT SA cohort were assayed using the Bio-Plex Pro Human Cytokine 27-Plex Panel and the Bio-Plex Pro Human Apolipoprotein 10-plex Assay Panel. Samples from the CORTIS-01 cohort were assayed using the Bio-Plex Pro Human Cytokine, Chemokine, and Growth Factor 48-Plex Panel.