TB gene test for children

Thursday May 1st, 2014

Genetic tests can be used to detect TB in children, British researchers have revealed.

A "cheap, quick and effective" test could study 51 genes in children's blood to diagnose TB, researchers say.

The test would identify TB in 80% of cases, according to researchers from Imperial College, London, and Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

The findings, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, come from a study of more than 2,800 children in South Africa, Malawi and Kenya.

The project also involved the schools of tropical medicine in London and Liverpool together with institutions in the three African countries backed by the Wellcome Trust.

Researcher Professor Michael Levin said: "It has taken seven years and the combined efforts of clinicians and scientists in the UK, Africa and Singapore to identify this gene signature of childhood TB.

"What we now need is collaboration from biotechnology and industrial partners to turn these findings into a simple, rapid and affordable test for TB that can be used in hospitals worldwide."

Fellow researcher Professor Brian Eley, from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, said: "Childhood TB is a major problem in African hospitals.

"An accurate test for childhood TB would be an enormous breakthrough, enabling earlier diagnosis, reducing long hospital admissions for investigation of TB suspects, and limiting the number of children treated inappropriately."

Anderson et al. Diagnosis of childhood tuberculosis and host RNA expression in Africa. NEJM 1 May 2014; DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1303657.

Tags: Africa | Child Health | Genetics | Respiratory | UK News

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