About the Authors

Julia Elsäßer

Contributed equally to this work with: Julia Elsäßer, Martin W. Janssen

Affiliations Department of Urology, Saarland University, Homburg, Germany, Department of Transplant and Infection Immunology, Institute of Virology, Saarland University, Homburg, Germany

Martin W. Janssen

Contributed equally to this work with: Julia Elsäßer, Martin W. Janssen

Affiliations Department of Urology, Saarland University, Homburg, Germany, Department of Transplant and Infection Immunology, Institute of Virology, Saarland University, Homburg, Germany

Frank Becker

Affiliation Boxberg Centre, Urological Group and Clinic Derout/Pönicke/Becker, Neunkirchen, Germany

Henrik Suttmann

Affiliation Urologicum Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Kai Schmitt

Affiliation Department of Pathology, Saarland University, Homburg, Germany

Urban Sester

Affiliation Department of Internal Medicine IV, Saarland University, Homburg, Germany

Michael Stöckle

Affiliation Department of Urology, Saarland University, Homburg, Germany

Martina Sester

martina.sester@uks.eu

Affiliation Department of Transplant and Infection Immunology, Institute of Virology, Saarland University, Homburg, Germany

Competing Interests

The study was supported in part by independent research support by medac GmbH. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript and this does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. M.S. and U.S. are co-founders of RedFlag Diagnostics GmbH and co-inventors for a patent application entitled "In vitro process for the quick determination of a patient's status relating to infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis" (international patent number WO2011113953/A1). H.S. acts as a consultant for medac GmbH. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. All other authors do not declare any competing financial interests.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JE MWJ US M. Sester. Performed the experiments: JE MWJ. Analyzed the data: JE MWJ US M. Sester. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: FB HS KS M. Stöckle. Wrote the manuscript: JE MWJ M. Sester.