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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Trop. Dis
Sec. Major Tropical Diseases
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fitd.2024.1443248
This article is part of the Research Topic Harnessing Multi-omics Data and Techniques to Provide Insights into Tropical Diseases View all articles

Viewpoint of multi-omics potential in tuberculosis research: Identifying biomarkers for biomanufacturing of efficient control tools

Provisionally accepted
Isaac D. Otchere Isaac D. Otchere 1,2*Sammy Y. Aboagye Sammy Y. Aboagye 3,4Patrick K. Arthur Patrick K. Arthur 1,5Adwoa Asante-Poku Adwoa Asante-Poku 1
  • 1 Department of Bacteriology, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
  • 2 Medical Research Council The Gambia Unit (MRC), Banjul, Gambia
  • 3 Institute of Environment and Sanitation Studies, College of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
  • 4 Department of Microbial Pathogens and Immunity, Rush Medical College, Rush University, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • 5 Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Ghana, Legon, Greater Accra, Ghana

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC), remains a global health burden, claiming millions of lives annually. Despite the availability of a vaccine (the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin; BCG), diagnostics (smear microscopy and DNA-based diagnostics) and drugs for treatment, challenges like drug resistance, lower diagnostic sensitivity such as microscopy, instrumentation and highlevel operational expertise requirement and poor vaccine efficacy pose a greater hinderance to TB monitoring and control. The inability of the BCG vaccine to protect against TB other than disseminated disease in neonates call for innovative approaches to provide improved interventions. This review highlights the potential of multi-omics as a powerful emerging tool offering a holistic insight into the intricate interplay between pathogens and the host immune response. It discusses the potential of multi-omics for discovering biomarkers as targets for rational drug design, production of more effective vaccines and as stable targets for production of universally applicable rapid diagnostics for early and accurate TB detection as well as monitoring treatment.

    Keywords: Tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC), Drug Resistance, diagnostics, Bacillus Calmett Guerin vaccine, biomarkers, Host-Pathogen Interactions

    Received: 03 Jun 2024; Accepted: 12 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Otchere, Aboagye, Arthur and Asante-Poku. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Isaac D. Otchere, Department of Bacteriology, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.