Effective anti-tuberculosis therapy correlates with plasma small RNA.
Small RNA (smRNA) is a diverse family of translation regulation molecules, which includes microRNA (miRNA). Changes in miRNA have been reported in association with respiratory disease [1] and in mycobacterial infection [2]. Studies have measured concentrations of miRNA pooled from multiple subjects with active tuberculosis (TB) disease compared with latently infected individuals and healthy controls [3]. However, this approach cannot assess variation between individuals, nor does it describe changes that might occur with treatment, both of which may be helpful in characterising and predicting patient outcome.