Identification of antigen specific T-cells for diagnosis of sarcoidosis

结节病是一种潜在的致命疾病，可以影响身体内的任何器官。这是由于聚集的组织称为肉芽肿。目前的诊断包括对肉芽肿进行针吸活检，可能会出现出血或感染等并发症。Kveim反应是一种古老的试验，涉及将一块结节病脾或淋巴结注射到患者体内。它经常产生局部反应，但我们不能再使用它，因为它有可能传播传染病。最近的研究表明，这种反应是由称为T细胞的特殊免疫细胞的涌入引起的。我们相信，我们可以测量一个人血液中的这些特定T细胞，看看他们是否患有这种疾病，而不需要进行活检。我们的小组在结核病中使用了类似的方法，并在100多年来创造了第一个针对这种感染的新测试。一种新的简单的基于T细胞的结节病血液检测对患者来说将是革命性的，并为疾病带来重要的新见解。

Sarcoidosis is a potentially fatal disease that can affect any organ within the body. It is due to thebuild up of clumps of tissue called granulomas. Current diagnosis involves a needle-biopsy of agranuloma which can have complications such as bleeding or infection. The Kveim reaction is an old test which involved injecting a piece of sarcoidosis spleen or lymph node into a patient. It often produced a local reaction but we cannot use it anymore due to the potential to transmit infectious diseases. Recent work has shown that the reaction resulted from an influx of special immune cells called T-cells.We believe we can measure these specific T-cells in the blood of a person to see if theyhave the disease, without the need for a biopsy. Our Group has used a similar approach intuberculosis and created the first new test for that infection in over 100 years. A new simple T-cell based blood test for sarcoidosis would be revolutionary for patients and lead to important new insights for the disease.