Blood Tuberculosis DNA Levels to Monitor Tuberculosis Treatment

Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading infectious cause of death worldwide. Current strategies for monitoring TB treatment response are culture dependent and insensitive. New methods of assessing treatment response in vivo could inform new drug development and other treatment strategies. Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) - small circulating fragments of DNA - is widely used in maternofetal medicine and oncology for diagnosis and assessment of treatment response. This study aims to investigate whether pathogen derived Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific cfDNA (Mtb-cfDNA) can be used to monitor TB treatment response. This feasibility study will take place at Mae RaMat TB Center in Thailand and includes two study groups: 1. Assay Development and Validation 2. Longitudinal Assessment of Mtb-cfDNA levels