Publication date: Mar 01, 2025

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB), a global zoonotic disease, causes negative effects on human and animal health. PhoP protein is a key regulator of pathogenic phenotypes in members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, which includes the causative agent of bTB. Despite extensive research on this protein focused in deciphering its regulatory role, little was explored about it as a diagnostic antigen. In humans, a novel role of anti-PhoP antibodies as a possible marker for the diagnosis of TB was demonstrated. However, this issue was not addressed in bovines. In this study, antigenic properties of the PhoP protein were evaluated in naturally Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) infected bovines. A high homology of PhoP (≥ 75 %) was observed in environmental mycobacterial species and other genera such as Salmonella and Pasteurella. Using the IFN-gamma release assay (IGRA), we detected cell-mediated immune response against PhoP in cattle from infected herds (25 %; IC 95 % 3. 2-65. 1), although it was significantly lower than that evoked by the reference antigens, ESAT-6/CFP-10/Rv3615c (75 %; IC95 % 34. 9-96. 8), and the purified protein derivative (87. 5 %; IC 95 % 47. 4-99. 7) (p

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