Malnutrition a Key Sign of Early-Onset Tuberculosis, Lung Disease

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of childhood tuberculosis (CT) worldwide. Tuberculosis protein in the lungs and TB cells interact to form a biofilm that can form on the lungs (airways), lungs and lymph system. These biofilms can then accumulate in mucous tissues and contribute to asthma and other chronic lung diseases, such as cystic fibrosis (CF).

In order to make the diagnosis of tuberculosis more accurate and effective, researchers at the University of Copenhagen set out to identify the biomarkers for early-onset tuberculosis (EOTS). An EOTS test no longer ignores present TB infection, but questions the status of disease factors like diet and exercise level.

‘There are still too many cases of untreated TB of which we don’t know who is infected and who isn’t. We urgently need more information to know the proper treatment of patients so that we can be better prepared to fight TB’, says Professor Claes Søndergaard Christensen, researcher at the University of Copenhagen’s Nordic Institute of Health and Welfare.

He is the lead author of a new study published in the Journal of Thoracic Surgery and Clinical Practice. The study is part of a recent STANDAL-Tuberculosis study which enrolled over 89 students and for which they were recorded for two months in an urban community in Denmark. During the duration of the study, the students received various chronic disease treatments: chemotherapy (molecular and experimental), occupational therapy (neurotoxic), antibiotics or both.

Among the lung cancer patients who received occupational therapy, 11% displayed cystic fibrosis (FT) or other types of cystic fibrosis-like diseases (CMF). Nearly a third (26/29) of the mostly newly diagnosed patients who were overweight or obese displayed a form of F508del/AFP/CAR-T1/AI1/li/CP1/PD or other forms of biomarkers for early-onset tuberculosis. Thereafter, the prevalence of the disease increased slightly, a large study showed.

Immunotherapy response.

In relation to CTCF, the rate of patients showing early-onset cystic fibrosis was also higher, with the rate rising from 20% to 30% for male patients, and from 15% to 30% for female patients.