Potential new treatments for antibiotic-resistant TB unearthed

A new treatment may have been found for forms of tuberculosis (TB) that are currently resistant to antibiotics, created by modification of one of the precursors to an existing drug.

The technique, developed by US and Indian scientists, has involved introducing 24-desmethylrifampicin as part of a cocktail of drugs used to combat the disease, in place of rifampicin.

The latter substance is little use against two strains of multi-drug-resistant TB, but 24-desmethylrifampicin still works against them.

Reporting the findings in the journal of Biological Chemistry, professor in the College of Pharmacy at Oregon State University Taifo Mahmud stated: “We believe these findings are an important new avenue toward treatment of multi-drug-resistant TB."

He added that the functions of 24-desmethylrifampicin in inhibiting mutated enzymes in the RNA of TB could possibly be reproduced in rifampicin, which is currently unable to inhibit these changed enzymes. 

TB was declared to be a global health emergency by the World Health Organization in 1993, after the identification of drug-resistant forms of a disease that had been assumed to no longer pose a threat in the first world.