Personalized profiles of antioxidant signaling pathway in patients with tuberculosis

Background/purpose: The non-protein thiol glutathione is protective against infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and, together with the transcription factor NRF2 (the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2), plays a crucial role in counteracting MTBinduced redox imbalance. Many genes implicated in the antioxidant response belong to the NRF2-signalling pathway, whose central role in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis (TB) has been recently proposed.Methods: In this study, we measured GSH levels in blood of patients with active TB and analysed the individual NRF2-mediated redox profile, in order to provide additional tools for discriminating the pathologic TB state and addressing therapeutic interventions. Results: Our findings show a systemic individual modulation of GSH and NRF2 signaling pathway in patients with TB, with a "personalized" induction of NRF2-target genes.Conclusion: This study can provide useful tools to monitor the course of the infection and address patients' treatment.Copyright (c) 2021, Taiwan Society of Microbiology. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).