Our Research
Immune responses determining the outcome of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), caused by infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), remains a leading public health problem. While most individuals infected with Mtb remain asymptomatic, in 2020, ten million individuals fell ill with this disease and 1.5 million died1.
It is not completely understood why some individuals will develop a life-threatening disease while others harbour a lifelong asymptomatic infection, but the crosstalk of mycobacteria and cellular immune components plays a major role. HIV and Diabetes Mellitus (DM) are risk factors for development of diseases. DM has been associated with TB for centuries, however, in the complex relation between TB and DM and their respective treatments, many important topics have been poorly studied or not studied at all.
Infection with Mtb occurs when the inhaled bacilli are phagocytized by resident lung alveolar macrophages (1). Infected cells recruit mononuclear phagocytes to the infection site, forming a nascent granuloma. During the subclinical stage of infection