Antibiotic resistance is a growing global concern, especially in bacteria that cause serious diseases, such as tuberculosis (TB). TB kills 1.3 million people a year, and extremely drug-resistant TB has been reported in dozens of countries.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists recently led a project to re-engineer an existing weak antibiotic into a TB killer. Chemical changes to the original drug prevent TB bacteria from flushing the new antibiotic out of their system.
The new antibiotics work well against drug-resistant TB, and appear to be safe and effective in laboratory studies. “We are now working towards the next key step: testing these antibiotics in a clinical trial of patients with drug-resistant TB,” said Richard Lee, PhD, of St. Jude Chemical Biology and Therapeutics.
The findings were reported in Nature Medicine.
January 27, 2014