Inflammatory profiles in sputum and blood of people with TB with and without HIV coinfection

Although tuberculosis (TB) remains a major killer among infectious diseases and the leading cause of death for people with HIV, drivers of immunopathology, particularly at the site of infection in the lungs remain incompletely understood. To fill this gap, we compared cytokine profiles in paired plasma and sputum samples collected from adults with pulmonary TB with and without HIV. We found that people with pulmonary TB with HIV had significantly higher markers of inflammation in both plasma and sputum than those without HIV; these differences were present despite a similar extent of radiographic involvement. We also found that the strength and direction of correlations between biomarkers in the blood and lung compartments differed by HIV status and people with HIV had more positive correlations than those without HIV. Future studies can further explore these differences in inflammation by HIV status across the blood and lung compartments and seek to establish how these profiles may be associated with long-term outcomes and lung health after completion of TB treatment.