RISK6, a 6-gene transcriptomic signature of TB disease risk, diagnosis and treatment response
Simon Mendelsohn (cohort 2015-16), Adam Penn-Nicholson, Stanley Kimbung Mbandi, Ethan Thompson, Sara Suliman, Novel N. Chegou, Stephanus T. Malherbe, Fatoumatta Darboe, Mzwandile Erasmus, Willem A. Hanekom, Nicole Bilek, Michelle Fisher, Stefan H. E. Kaufmann, Jill Winter, Melissa Murphy, Robin Wood, Carl Morrow, Ildiko Van Rhijn, Branch Moody, Megan Murray, Bruno B. Andrade, Timothy R. Sterling , Jayne Sutherland, Kogieleum Naidoo, Nesri Padayatchi, Gerhard Walzl, Mark Hatherill, Daniel Zak, Thomas J. Scriba, The Adolescent Cohort Study team, The GC6-74 Consortium, The SATVI Clinical and Laboratory Team, The ScreenTB Consortium, The AE-TBC Consortium, The RePORT Brazil Team, Peruvian Household Contacts Cohort Team, The CAPRISA IMPRESS team
Improved tuberculosis diagnostics and tools for monitoring treatment response are urgently needed. We developed a robust and simple, PCR-based host-blood transcriptomic signature, RISK6, for multiple applications: identifying individuals at risk of incident disease, as a screening test for subclinical or clinical tuberculosis, and for monitoring tuberculosis treatment. RISK6 utility was validated by blind prediction using quantitative real-time (qRT) PCR in seven independent cohorts.