Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of diagnosing and monitoring various distinct presentations of tuberculosis: active tuberculosis disease, latent tuberculosis infection and recent tuberculosis infection. The rapid immune assay is based on the evaluation of the frequency of Interferon (IFN) gamma-producing antigen-specific T lymphocytes responding to selected peptide sequences from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, selected for their immunogenicity. The invention concerns also immunogenic and vaccine compositions based on these specific peptide sequences.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method for the immuno-diagnosis of diseases with different aetiology (infectious diseases, tumors etc) by measurement of the T cell response J, B and NK lymphocytes) induced by a set of diseasespecific antigens. The method is based on the quantitative determination of antigenspecific T lymphocytes (referred as Ag-Sp), stimulated by using a newly devised pathology-specific antigen or epitope compositions which represent further embodiments of the invention. After stimulation, the selective measurement of the Ag-Sp T lymphocytes is performed by: A) monoclonal antibodies recognizing membrane structures of T lymphocytes and of their sub-populations; B) monoclonal antibodies binding to cytokines accumulating at intracellular level after the stimulation with the antigen; or C) mixtures of A) and B).