Evolution of the tuberculin skin test reveals generalisable Mtb-reactive T cell metaclones.

ABSTRACT: T cells contribute to immune protection and pathogenesis in tuberculosis, but measurements of polyclonal responses have failed to resolve correlates of outcome. We report the temporal evaluation of the human in vivo clonal repertoire of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb)-reactive T cell responses, by T cell receptor (TCR) sequencing at the site of the tuberculin skin test, as a model for a standardised antigenic challenge. Initial non-selective recruitment of T cells is followed by enrichment of Mtb-reactive clones arising from oligoclonal T cell proliferation. We introduce a modular computational pipeline, Metaclonotypist, to sensitively cluster distinct TCRs with shared epitope specificity, which we apply here to establish a catalogue of public Mtb-reactive HLA-restricted T cell metaclones

SUBMITTER: Turner CT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12923891 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature