Matrix Metalloproteinases as Markers of Acute Inflammation Process in the Pulmonary Tuberculosis

The main factors of pathogenesis in the pulmonary tuberculosis are not only the bacterial virulence and sensitivity of the host immune system to the pathogen, but also the degree of destruction of the lung tissue. Such destruction processes lead to the development of caverns, in most cases requiring surgical interventions besides the drug therapy. Identification of special biochemical markers allowing to assess the necessity of surgery or therapy prolongation remains a challenge. We consider promising markers-metalloproteinases-analyzing the data obtained from patients with pulmonary tuberculosis infected by different strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We argue that the presence of drug-resistant strains in lungs leading to complicated clinical prognosis could be justified not only by the difference in medians of biomarkers concentration (as determined by the Mann-Whitney test for small samples), but also by the qualitative difference in their probability distributions (as detected by the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test). Our results and the provided raw data could be used for further development of precise biochemical data-based diagnostic and prognostic tools for pulmonary tuberculosis.