Identification of antigen specific T-cells for diagnosis of sarcoidosis

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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.