New weapon in battle with drug-resistant TB
Researchers at the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases have isolated a new class of drugs that could be used to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis, a disease that affects thousands of Cambodians, according to a report published in the journal Science Translational Medicine last week.
The drugs, called indolcarboxamides, work by blocking a protein called MmpL3 that is essential to TB cells’ survival. …
Because the drugs have a “novel mode of action” in stopping TB, said Dr Manjunatha Ujjini, who took part in the study, “there is no pre-existing resistance, and [they] therefore could prove to be effective against drug-resistant strains of [mycobacterium TB]”. …
Cambodia has one of the highest prevalences of TB in the world, said Medicins Sans Frontieres Head of Mission Jean-Luc Lambert, but even with the number of cases in the hundreds of thousands, only 14 per cent are drug resistant. …
Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-weapon-battle-drug-resistant-tb
