Blood Transcriptional Profiles of Active and Latent TB (UK Test Set)

This dataset aims to validate and confirm the signature identified in the training set. The aim of the experiment was to define transcriptional signatures in whole blood of TB patients (before drug treatment) and healthy controls to distinguish the signature of Latent and Active TB patients from each other and from healthy controls. This will help in diagnosis of active tuberculosis which normally relies on culture of the bacilli, which can take up to 6 wks, and sometimes the bacilli cannot be obtained from sputum thus requiring invasive techniques obtaining bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). In some cases the bacill cannot be grown from sputum or BAL. Secondly the aim was to determine whether Latent patients have a homogeneous or heterogeneous signature, one may expect the latter since it is not possible to determine by the present tests (Tuberculin skin test - TST - or MTb antigen responsiveness of blood cells to produce IFN-gamma - IGRA assay) whether the mycobacteria has been cleared, is still present but is controlled, or if patients are recently infected or reactivated and will develop active TB.