Lack of effective differential diagnostic methods between active tuberculosis (TB) and latent infection (LTBI) is still an obstacle for TB control. Furthermore, the molecular mechanism behind the progression from LTBI to active TB has been not elucidated until now. Therefore, we performed label-free quantitative proteomics to identify plasma biomarkers for discriminating pulmonary TB (PTB) from LTBI individuals. Atotal of 3 biological replicates for each of the groups were used for proteomic analysis. Each biological sample was composed of 5 individual plasma samples which were equally mixed. Mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics technologies are powerful tools used for large-scale protein identification and quantization. Among these techniques, label-free shotgun proteomics is highly effective for the identification of peptides and, subsequently, to obtain a global protein profile of a sample. Label-free shotgun proteomics provides a unique opportunity to measure peptides present in a sample and subsequently determine the abundance of the proteins across various samples. Notably, label-free shotgun proteomics is suitable for applications in complex biological systems and generates faster, cleaner and simpler results . Consequently, numerous researchers are employing label-free shotgun proteomics techniques for discovery studies. In total, 229 non-redundant proteins were identified based on the identification of one or more unique peptides. Differentially expressed proteins were defined as those that showed a fold change of greater than 2.0 or less than 0.5 in relative abundance and a P-value < 0.05. Based on these criteria, there were 59 differentially expressed proteins between PTB group and LTBI group, and 56 differentially expressed proteins between PTB group and HC group, respectively. A total of 31 overlapping proteins with significantly different expression level were identified in PTB patients, compared with LTBI individualsand healthy controls.