{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,1]],"date-time":"2026-06-01T08:06:56Z","timestamp":1780301216970,"version":"3.54.0"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"Oxford University Press (OUP)","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,25]],"date-time":"2026-04-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1777075200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Crick African Network"},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100016270","name":"United Kingdom\u2019s Global Challenges Research","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100016270","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000061","name":"Fogarty International Center","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000061","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,28]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Pregnancy modulates immune responses against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection. Cytokines, including interleukin-2 (IL-2), play a crucial role in Mtb containment, mainly by inducing the proliferation of T cells. However, the role of IL-2 in latent tuberculosis (TB) infection (LTBI) screening has not been completely explored. We, therefore, evaluated the diagnostic accuracy and optimal cutoff value (OCV) of IL-2 as a potential adjunct biomarker for screening LTBI during pregnancy.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We enrolled pregnant women without previous active TB at Kawempe National Referral Hospital, Uganda, in 2020. We tested for LTBI using the QuantiFERON-TB Gold-Plus assay. Blood in quantiFERON blood collection tubes was stimulated with Mtb peptides of ESAT-6 and CFP-10 and following incubation, IL-2 culture supernatant levels were measured in an 11-plex Luminex assay using the Luminex\u00ae 100\/200\u2122 System with xPONENT\u00ae 3.1 software. LTBI positivity was defined as an IFN-\u03b3 concentration \u22650.35\u2005IU\/mL (calculated as TB1\/TB2-Nil). A receiver operator characteristic curve was plotted to assess the diagnostic performance of Mtb-specific IL-2 culture supernatants using STATA 18.0. The OCV was determined using the Youden index, considering sensitivity and specificity.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Of 159 participants, the median gestational age was 26.1 (IQR: 20.0\u201331.6) weeks, 8.2% (n = 13) had HIV, and 10.1% (n = 16) were recent TB contacts. Overall, 79 (49.7%) had LTBI. Mtb-specific IL-2 levels were significantly higher in LTBI than in the non-LTBI group (847.9 (418.2\u20131309.1) versus 147.73 (100.38\u2013207.19) pg\/mL, P &amp;lt; .001). IL-2 achieved an AUC of 0.88 (95% CI: 0.82\u20130.93), with 76% sensitivity and 96% specificity. IFN-\u03b3 showed an AUC of 0.83 (95% CI: 0.76\u20130.90), with 78% sensitivity and 90% specificity. The combined IL-2 + IFN-\u03b3 response yielded the highest accuracy, with an AUC of 0.89 (95% CI: 0.83\u20130.94), 77% sensitivity, and 95% specificity.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Mtb-specific IL-2 culture supernatant levels showed good discriminatory power for LTBI detection in pregnancy, comparable to IFN-\u03b3, with the combined IL-2+ IFN-\u03b3 response yielding the highest accuracy. These findings support the potential utility of IL-2, alone or with IFN-\u03b3, as an adjunct biomarker for LTBI screening in pregnant women, warranting further validation in larger, diverse cohorts.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1093\/ofid\/ofag237","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,18]],"date-time":"2026-04-18T11:16:25Z","timestamp":1776510985000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Adjunct Diagnostic Accuracy of Antigen-specific Interleukin-2 for Latent Tuberculosis Infection in Pregnancy"],"prefix":"10.1093","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4515-8517","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Felix","family":"Bongomin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Gulu University , Gulu 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,","place":["Uganda"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1289-0111","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ronald","family":"Olum","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland ,","place":["USA"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8169-2819","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Diana","family":"Sitenda","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinical Research Unit, Tuberculosis and Comorbidity Consortium , Kampala ,","place":["Uganda"]},{"name":"Department of Immunology and Molecular Biology, School of Biomedical Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University , Kampala ,","place":["Uganda"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5127-3031","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Davis","family":"Kibirige","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinical Research Unit, Tuberculosis and Comorbidity Consortium , Kampala ,","place":["Uganda"]},{"name":"Department of Medicine, Uganda Martyrs Lubaga Hospital , Kampala ,","place":["Uganda"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5852-9674","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Joseph","family":"Baruch Baluku","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Makerere University Lung Institute , Kampala ,","place":["Uganda"]},{"name":"Kiruddu National Referral Hospital Division of Pulmonology, , Kampala ,","place":["Uganda"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5156-037X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Stephen","family":"Cose","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Research Council\/Uganda Virus Research Institute (MRC\/UVRI) and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) Uganda Research Unit , Entebbe ,","place":["Uganda"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8303-6046","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Irene","family":"Andia-Biraro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Clinical Research Unit, Tuberculosis and Comorbidity Consortium , Kampala ,","place":["Uganda"]},{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University , Kampala 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