Evaluation of urinary extracellular vesicles and microRNAs to diagnose urogenital tuberculosis

Figure 1 Urinary extracellular vesicles characterization representative nanoparticle tracking analysis plots of urinary extracellular vesicles showing mean size and mean exosome concentration (particles/mL)/size in pellet. ^aP value < 0.05; ^cP value < 0.001. Statistical significance calculated using one-way analysis of variance test (n = 6/group). A: Normal urine; B: Urinary tract infections urine; C: Urogenital tuberculosis urine; D: Histogram depicting the nanoparticle tracking analysis mean; E: Histogram depicting the nanoparticle tracking analysis mode. UTI: Urinary tract infections; UGTB: Urogenital tuberculosis.

Figure 2 Urinary extracellular vesicles characterization using flow cytometry histogram depicting the expression of CD63 on the surface of urinary extracellular vesicles samples of the three study groups (n = 3/group). Samples urinary extracellular vesicle (uEV) 1, uEV2 and uEV3, captured on anti-human CD63 magnetic beads followed by anti-CD63 primary antibody and stained with detection antibody. Grey color on histogram represents CD63 positive-extracellular vesicle population. A: Unstained anti-human CD63 magnetic beads; B: Control; C: Urinary tract infections group; D: Urogenital tuberculosis group. FITC: Fluorescein isothiocyanate; UTI: Urinary tract infections; UGTB: Urogenital tuberculosis.

Figure 3 MicroRNAs expression in the three study groups Histogram depicting the expression of microRNA-155-5p, microRNA-26a-5p and microRNA-29a-3p amongst the three groups (n = 20/group). ^aP value < 0.05; ^bP value < 0.01. Statistical significance calculated using one-way analysis of variance for microRNA (miRNA)-155-5 and miRNA-29a-3p and Kruskal-Wallis test for miRNA-26a-5p. MiRNAs: MicroRNA; UTI: Urinary tract infections; UGTB: Urogenital tuberculosis.

Figure 4 Receivers operating characteristic curve analysis for microRNAs expression. A: Receivers operating characteristic curve of microRNA (miRNA)-155-5p to differentiate urogenital tuberculosis from urinary tract infection as well as from healthy controls cases, with a likely hood ratio of 5 (P < 0.0001) and 2 (P = 0.05), respectively; B: Receivers operating characteristic curve of miRNA-29a-3p and miRNA-26a-5p to differentiate urogenital tuberculosis from urinary tract infection and healthy control cases, respectively with optimal sensitivity and specificity with a likelihood ratio of more than 2. ROC: Receivers operating characteristic; N: Controls; AUC: Area under curve; UTI: Urinary tract infections; UGTB: Urogenital tuberculosis.