Tuberculosis disrupts glucose metabolism in liver, study reveals

TUBERCULOSIS disrupts glucose metabolism in the liver, thereby potentially pushing vulnerable patients towards developing related diseases such as diabetes, a study has found.

Using lab models, researchers found that during the early stages of the bacterial infection, an immune response was triggered in liver cells that changed how glucose was broken down in the body.

In the next stage, the researchers from the University of Leicester, UK, analysed metabolism-related data of individuals from the PubMed database, which is maintained by the US National Institutes of Health.

Glucose metabolism in the liver was disrupted in people who advanced to tuberculosis from latent or asymptomatic infection, the team found.

The findings complemented the current understanding that diabetes worsens symptoms of tuberculosis, the authors said.

"Our paper changes the focus from diabetes making tuberculosis worse to the possibility that late diagnosis of (the disease) can contribute to the disruption of glucose metabolism, insulin resistance and therefore can promote progress towards diabetes in those that are susceptible," Andrea Cooper, a professor at the University of Leicester and corresponding author of the study published in the journal PLoS Pathogens, said.

The researchers said that tuberculosis patients should be screened for insulin resistance prior to treatment.

"As diabetes compromises drug treatment, our paper also supports the idea that metabolic screening should be involved in any drug or vaccine trials," Cooper said.

"In summary, we have shown that despite the liver not being a primary site of infection, both lipid and glucose metabolic gene and protein expression are perturbed during TB," the authors wrote.

The results pave the way for future research aimed at understanding molecular routes by which the immune response changes liver metabolism, which the researchers said could allow for developing targeted interventions.

"We will also be investigating how latent TB (which is infection with the bacterial agent of TB without significant symptoms) might be impacting metabolic health in humans," Cooper said.

(PTI)