BACKGROUND:Timely diagnosis of tuberculosis disease is critical for positive patient outcomes, yet potentially millions go undiagnosed or unreported each year. Sputum is widely used as the testing input, but limited by its complexity, heterogeneity, and sourcing problems. Finding methods to interrogate noninvasive, non-sputum clinical specimens is indispensable to improving access to tuberculosis diagnosis and care. In this work, economical plasmonic gratings were used to analyze tuberculosis biomarker lipoarabinomannan (LAM) from clinical urine samples by single molecule fluorescence assay (FLISA) and compared with gold standard sputum GeneXpert MTB/ RIF, culture, and reference ELISA testing results. METHODS AND FINDINGS:In this study, twenty sputum and urine sample sets were selected retrospectively from a repository of HIV-negative patient samples collected before initiation of anti-tuberculosis therapy. GeneXpert MTB/RIF and culture testing of patient sputum confirmed the presence or absence of pulmonary tuberculosis while all patient urines were reference ELISA LAM-negative. Plasmonic gratings produced by low-cost soft lithography were bound with anti-LAM capture antibody, incubated with patient urine samples, and biotinylated detection antibody. Fluorescently labeled streptavidin revealed single molecule emission by epifluorescence microscope. Using a 1 fg/mL baseline for limit of detection, single molecule FLISA demonstrated good qualitative agreement with gold standard tests on 19 of 20 patients, including accurately predicting the gold-standard-negative patients, while one gold-standard-positive patient produced no observable LAM in urine. CONCLUSIONS:Single molecule FLISA by plasmonic grating demonstrated the ability to quantify tuberculosis LAM from complex urine samples of patients from a high endemic setting with negligible interference from the complex media itself. Moreover, agreement with patient diagnoses by gold standard testing suggests that single molecule FLISA could be used as a highly sensitive test to diagnose tuberculosis noninvasively.

Background

Sputum-based testing is a barrier to increasing access to molecular diagnostics for tuberculosis (TB). Many people with TB are unable to produce sputum, and sputum processing increases assay complexity and cost. Tongue swabs are emerging as an alternative to sputum, but performance limits are uncertain.

Methods

From June 2022 to July 2023, we enrolled 397 consecutive adults with cough >2 weeks at 2 health centers in Kampala, Uganda. We collected demographic and clinical information, sputum for TB testing (Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra and 2 liquid cultures), and tongue swabs for same-day quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) testing. We evaluated tongue swab qPCR diagnostic accuracy versus sputum TB test results, quantified TB targets per swab, assessed the impact of serial swabbing, and compared 2 swab types (Copan FLOQSWAB and Steripack spun polyester).

Results

Among 397 participants, 43.1% were female, median age was 33 years, 23.5% were diagnosed with human immunodeficiency virus, and 32.0% had confirmed TB. Sputum Xpert Ultra and tongue swab qPCR results were concordant for 98.2% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 96.2-99.1) of participants. Tongue swab qPCR sensitivity was 92.6% (95% CI: 86.5 to 96.0) and specificity was 99.1% (95% CI: 96.9 to 99.8) versus microbiological reference standard. A single tongue swab recovered a 7-log range of TB copies, with a decreasing recovery trend among 4 serial swabs. Swab types performed equivalently.

Conclusions

Tongue swabs are a promising alternative to sputum for molecular diagnosis of TB, with sensitivity approaching sputum-based molecular tests. Our results provide valuable insights for developing successful tongue swab-based TB diagnostics.

Detection of tuberculosis at the point-of-care (POC) is limited by the low sensitivity of current commercially available tests. We describe a diagnostic accuracy field evaluation of a prototype urine Tuberculosis Lipoarabinomannan Lateral Flow Assay (TB-LAM LFA) in both HIV-positive and HIV-negative patients using fresh samples with sensitivity and specificity as the measures of accuracy. This prototype combines a proprietary concentration system with a sensitive LFA. In a prospective study of 292 patients with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis in Uganda, the clinical sensitivity and specificity was compared against a microbiological reference standard including sputum Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra and solid and liquid culture. TB-LAM LFA had an overall sensitivity of 60% (95%CI 51-69%) and specificity of 80% (95%CI 73-85%). When comparing HIV-positive (N = 86) and HIV-negative (N = 206) patients, there was no significant difference in sensitivity (sensitivity difference 8%, 95%CI -11% to +24%, p = 0.4351) or specificity (specificity difference -9%, 95%CI -24% to +4%, p = 0.2051). Compared to the commercially available Alere Determine TB-LAM Ag test, the TB-LAM LFA prototype had improved sensitivity in both HIV-negative (difference 49%, 95%CI 37% to 59%, p<0.0001) and HIV-positive patients with CD4+ T-cell counts >200cells/μL (difference 59%, 95%CI 32% to 75%, p = 0.0009). This report is the first to show improved performance of a urine TB LAM test for HIV-negative patients in a high TB burden setting. We also offer potential assay refinement solutions that may further improve sensitivity and specificity.