SMURF1 and meningeal tuberculosis: Interestingly, in addition to Smurf1 being highly expressed in lung biopsies of human patients infected with M. tuberculosis (26), it was shown that three Smurf1 polymorphisms were associated with a higher susceptibility to tuberculous meningitis (while they were not correlated to the severity or prognosis of tuberculous meningitis) in China (93), suggesting that Smurf1 might also participate in resistance against human tuberculosis.