Increased long-term central memory T cells (T CM ) in patients with retreatment pulmonary tuberculosis

Xin Yao ^1,2 Haomin Cai ¹ Xiong Chen ² Fangyou Yu ¹ Xiaocui Wu ¹ Lulu Chen ^1,2 Yarong Shi ^1,2 Yang Hu ¹ Yuyan Xu ² Zhonghua Liu ^1*

• ¹ Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
• ² Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Monitoring and Disease Control, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China

and disease progression. Nevertheless, the specific functions and changes of T lymphocyte subsets in retreatment tuberculosis remain poorly understand. The study aims to identify the changes in T lymphocyte subsets and the immunoprotective effect of TCM in retreatment tuberculosis.Method. We collected venous blood from the participants and assessed using flow cytometry. Univariate analysis and regression model were used to evaluate the changes of T lymphocyte subsets and key subsets in retreatment tuberculosis.Results. In the study, while the frequencies of CD4 and CD8 T cells were similar between primary and retreatment patients, retreatment patients exhibited a significant increase in TCM (P < 0.05), which may represent a protective factor for retreatment (adjusted OR=0.926, 95%CI: 0.860-0.996, P < 0.05) (adjusted OR=0.951, 95%CI: 0.912-0.992, P ＜ 0.05). Furthermore, TCM significantly increased in retreatment patients who achieved cure (P < 0.05), though were similar between the cure and nocure for primary patients; The potentially protective effect of TCM in patients with repeated infection may possibly contribute by improving the efficacy of retreatment chemotherapy (adjusted OR=0.803, 95%CI: 0.677-0.953, P < 0.05) (adjusted OR=0.890, 95% CI: 0.812-0.976, P ＜ 0.05), particularly in those with lung injury (adjusted OR=0.780, 95% CI: 0.635-0.957, P< 0.05) (adjusted OR=0.805, 95% CI: 0.660-0.983, P＜0.05).may improve the efficacy of retreatment tuberculosis with existing and with novel chemotherapies.