Host susceptibility to tuberculosis: insights from a longitudinal study of gene expression in diabetes.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global disease, and diabetes which is documented to increase susceptibility to TB threefold, is also becoming pandemic. This susceptibility has been attracting extensive research interest. The increased risk of TB in diabetes may serve as a unique model to understand host susceptibility to specific pathogens in humans. To examine this rationale, we investigated expression of reported TB candidate genes in a longitudinal diabetes study. Two genes HK2 and CD28 emerged as potential culprits in diabetes-increased TB susceptibility.