{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,2]],"date-time":"2026-06-02T01:43:43Z","timestamp":1780364623062,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,26]],"date-time":"2022-08-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1661472000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000061","name":"fogarty international center","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["1R25TW011213."],"award-info":[{"award-number":["1R25TW011213."]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000061","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS ONE"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n<jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Tuberculosis remains a major public health problem worldwide accounting for 1.4 million deaths annually. LL-37 is an effector molecule involved in immunity with both antimicrobial and immunomodulatory properties. The purpose of this study was to compare LL-37 circulatory levels among participants with active and latent tuberculosis and to determine its ability to discriminate between the two infectious states.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n<jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>A cross-sectional study was performed among 56 active tuberculosis patients, 49 latent tuberculosis individuals, and 43 individuals without tuberculosis infection. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to assess LL-37 levels. Data analysis was performed using STATA software and Graph pad Prism version 8. Mann-Whitney U test was used for correlation between variables with two categories and the Kruskal-Wallis test for three or more categories.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n<jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>The study had more female participants than males, with similar median ages across the three groups, 29.5, 25.0, and 23.0 years respectively. Active tuberculosis patients had significantly higher LL-37 levels compared to those with latent tuberculosis and without tuberculosis. The median\/interquartile ranges were 318.8 ng\/ml (157.9\u2013547.1), 242.2 ng\/ml (136.2\u2013579.3), 170.9 ng\/ml (129.3\u2013228.3); p = 0.002 respectively. Higher LL-37 was found in the male participant with median\/interquartile range, 424.8 ng\/ml (226.2\u2013666.8) compared to the females 237.7 ng\/ml (129.6\u2013466.6); p = 0.045. LL-37 had better discriminatory potential between active tuberculosis and no tuberculosis (AUC = 0.71, sensitivity 71.4% specificity = 69.8%) than with latent tuberculosis (AUC = 0.55, sensitivity = 71.4%, specificity = 44.9%). There was moderate differentiation between latent tuberculosis and no tuberculosis (AUC = 0.63, sensitivity = 44.9% specificity = 90.7%).<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n<jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>Significantly higher LL-37 levels were observed among active tuberculosis patients than those without tuberculosis infection and were, therefore able to discriminate between active tuberculosis and other tuberculosis infectious states, especially with no tuberculosis. Further assessment of this biomarker as a screening tool to exclude tuberculosis is required.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0272788","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,26]],"date-time":"2022-08-26T17:49:07Z","timestamp":1661536147000},"page":"e0272788","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Evaluation of circulating serum cathelicidin levels as a potential biomarker to discriminate between active and latent tuberculosis in Uganda"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"17","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7048-4643","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Ester Lilian","family":"Acen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"David Patrick","family":"Kateete","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"William","family":"Worodria","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ronald","family":"Olum","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Moses L.","family":"Joloba","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8635-2925","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Mudarshiru","family":"Bbuye","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Irene Andia","family":"Biraro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"pone.0272788.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"85","DOI":"10.1016\/j.clim.2014.12.003","article-title":"Pulmonary tuberculosis patients with a vitamin D deficiency demonstrate low local expression of the antimicrobial peptideLL-37 but enhanced FoxP3+ regulatory T cells and IgG-secreting cells","volume":"156","author":"Sayma Rahman","year":"2015","journal-title":"Clinical Immunology"},{"issue":"3","key":"pone.0272788.ref002","first-page":"479","article-title":"Association of vitamin D deficiency with tuberculosis in adult patients reporting to a tertiary care hospital of Rawalpind","volume":"64","author":"Syed Fawad Mashhadi","year":"2014","journal-title":"Pak Armed Forces Med J"},{"key":"pone.0272788.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"279","DOI":"10.1186\/s12890-020-01316-2","article-title":"A bioinformatics analysis to identify novel biomarkers for prognosis of pulmonary tuberculosis","volume":"20","author":"Yahong Sun","year":"2020","journal-title":"BMC Pulmonary Medicine"},{"issue":"11","key":"pone.0272788.ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7190","DOI":"10.4049\/jimmunol.178.11.7190","article-title":"IFN-gamma-And TNF-independent Vitamin D-inducible Human Suppression of Mycobacteria: The Role of Cathelicidin LL-37","volume":"178","author":"AR Martineau","year":"2007","journal-title":"Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md: 1950)"},{"issue":"6","key":"pone.0272788.ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.3390\/nu10060721","article-title":"Vitamin D(3) Status and the Association with Human Cathelicidin Expression in Patients with Different Clinical Forms of Active Tuberculosis","volume":"10","author":"S Ashenafi","year":"2018","journal-title":"Nutrients"},{"issue":"165","key":"pone.0272788.ref006","article-title":"Diminished Systemic and Mycobacterial Antigen Specific Anti-microbial Peptide Responses in Low Body Mass Index\u2013Latent Tuberculosis Co-morbidity","volume":"19","author":"Anuradha Rajamanickam","year":"2020","journal-title":"Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology"},{"key":"pone.0272788.ref007","article-title":"Vitamin D, Cathelicidin, Prolactin, Autoantibodies, and Cytokines in Different Forms of Pulmonary Tuberculosis versus Sarcoidosis","volume":"19","author":"Irina Vasilyevna Belyaeva","year":"2017","journal-title":"IMAJ"},{"key":"pone.0272788.ref008","first-page":"105419","article-title":"Status of vitamin D and the associated host factors in pulmonary tuberculosis patients and their household contacts: a cross sectional study. 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