A new study has revealed that tuberculosis Disrupts glucose metabolism in the liver. This potentially predisposes vulnerable patients to developing related diseases such as diabetes. The study was published in the journal PLOS Pathogens and was conducted by researchers at the University of Leicester, UK.

Tuberculosis, commonly known as TB, is a condition that causes infection in your lungs and other tissues. While it usually affects your lungs, TB can also affect many other organs in your body, such as your spine, brain or kidneys. The condition can spread from one person to another when an infected person coughs, sneezes or sings.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 10.6 million people worldwide will fall ill with TB in 2022. This also included 5.8 million men, 3.5 million women and 1.3 million children.

For the study, researchers used laboratory models and found that during the early stages of bacterial infection, an immune response was triggered in liver cells that changed the way glucose is broken down in the body.

In the next step, the researchers analyzed the individuals’ metabolomics data from the PubMed database, which is maintained by the US National Institutes of Health. Researchers found that people who contracted tuberculosis due to latent or asymptomatic infection had disrupted glucose metabolism in their livers.

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

Andrea Cooper, a professor at the University of Leicester and corresponding author of the study, said: “Our paper shifts the focus from the possibility of diabetes making tuberculosis worse to the possibility that late diagnosis of (the disease) contributes to the disruption of glucose metabolism, insulin “Can lead to resistance and therefore progression to diabetes in those who are susceptible.”

The researchers said tuberculosis patients should be screened for insulin resistance before treatment. “Since diabetes compromises drug treatment, our paper also supports the idea that metabolic assays should be included in any drug or vaccine trial,” Cooper said.

“In summary, we have shown that despite the liver not being the primary site of infection, both lipid and glucose metabolism gene and protein expression is perturbed during TB,” the authors wrote.

The results pave the way for future research aimed at understanding the molecular pathways by which the immune response alters liver metabolism, which the researchers said could allow targeted interventions to be developed.

“We will also investigate how latent TB (which is infection with the bacterial agent of TB without significant symptoms) may affect metabolic health in humans,” Cooper said.

Get the latest news live on Times Now with breaking news and top headlines from around the world.