The Outcome of Tuberculosis Treatment in the Presence of SARS-CoV-2 Anti-RBD Antibody.

Authors

Heni Muflihah, Fajar Awalia Yulianto, Winni Maharani, Anis Rapiq Hanipan

Published in

Infection and drug resistance. Volume 19. Pages 579272. Epub Jul 21, 2026.

Abstract

Vaccination or infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can induce specific antibodies. The level of anti-spike receptor-binding (RBD) antibody may last long and interact with the immune response to tuberculosis (TB). We aimed to investigate the impact of the anti-RBD antibody level at baseline on the outcome of the intensive phase of TB treatment.
This cohort study recruited newly diagnosed TB patients from September 2022 to May 2023. Observation was conducted at baseline and after two months of TB treatment. Interviews and physical examinations were performed for patients with a history of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination or infection and anthropometric data, respectively. Peripheral blood was collected for baseline assessment of anti-RBD antibodies, an interferon gamma release assay (IGRA), and complete blood count. The clinical outcomes of TB treatment include sputum conversion, hematology parameters and body mass index (BMI).
Among the 63 participants, the majority were vaccinated for COVID-19 (73,02%), underweight (58.73%), and IGRA positive (79,03%), increased median ESR (71.5 (IQR 18-111) mm/hour), and slightly low median lymphocyte proportion (19.5 (IQR 7-33) %) at baseline. The median titer of anti-RBD antibodies at baseline was 1,584.2 (IQR 95.6-34,379.3) AU/mL/. At two months of TB treatment, all the returned participants had sputum conversion and improved BMI and normal hematology parameters. The anti-RBD antibody level was associated with the baseline BMI (β =0.00019, 95% CI: 0.0001-0.0003, p=0.00) and post treatment lymphocyte count (β=0.0003 (95% CI: 0.0001-0.001, p=0.02).
Our study revealed that susceptible TB patients had favorable outcomes after 2 months of TB treatment when baseline anti-RBD antibody was high at baseline. We suggest that larger studies are needed to confirm the relationship.

PMID:
42502758
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 26 Jul 2026.

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