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Katoto PDMC, Kayembe-Kitenge T, Pollitt KJG, Martens DS, Ghosh M, Nachega JB, Nemery B, Nawrot TS. Telomere length and outcome of treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis in a gold mining community. Sci Rep 2021; 11:4031. [PMID: 33597559 PMCID: PMC7889934 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-83281-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2020] [Accepted: 02/01/2021] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Telomere length (TL) is a marker of ageing and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is an early marker of inflammation caused by oxidative stress. We determined TL and mtDNA content among active pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients to assess if these cellular biomarkers differed between artisanal miners and non-miners, and to assess if they were predictive of treatment outcome. We conducted a prospective cohort study from August 2018 to May 2019 involving newly diagnosed PTB patients at three outpatient TB clinics in a rural Democratic Republic of Congo. We measured relative TL and mtDNA content in peripheral blood leukocytes (at inclusion) via qPCR and assessed their association with PTB treatment outcome. We included 129 patients (85 miners and 44 non-miners) with PTB (median age 40 years; range 5-71 years, 22% HIV-coinfected). For each increase in year and HIV-coinfection, TL shortened by - 0.85% (- 0.19 to - 0.52) (p ≤ 0.0001) and - 14% (- 28.22 to - 1.79) (p = 0.02) respectively. Independent of these covariates, patients with longer TL were more likely to have successful TB treatment [adjusted hazard ratio; 95% CI 1.27 for a doubling of leucocyte telomere length at baseline; 1.05-1.44] than patients with a shorter TL. Blood mtDNA content was not predictive for PTB outcome. For a given chronological age, PTB patients with longer telomeres at time of diagnosis were more likely to have successful PTB treatment outcome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick D M C Katoto
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Centre for Environment and Health, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
- Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Respiratory Medicine, CEGEMI and Prof. Lurhuma Biomedical Research Laboratory, Mycobacterium Unit, Catholic University of Bukavu, Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo.
- Department of Medicine and Center for Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa.
| | - Tony Kayembe-Kitenge
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Centre for Environment and Health, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Department of Public Health, Unit of Toxicology, University of Lubumbashi, Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo
| | - Krystal J Godri Pollitt
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Dries S Martens
- Centre of Environmental Health, University of Hasselt, Agoralaan gebouw D, 3590, Diepenbeek, Belgium
| | - Manosij Ghosh
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Centre for Environment and Health, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jean B Nachega
- Department of Medicine and Center for Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa
- Departments of Epidemiology and International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Departments of Epidemiology, Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
| | - Benoit Nemery
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Centre for Environment and Health, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Tim S Nawrot
- Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Centre for Environment and Health, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
- Centre of Environmental Health, University of Hasselt, Agoralaan gebouw D, 3590, Diepenbeek, Belgium.
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