New Antibiotics Offer Hope in Fight Against Drug-Resistant TB: Study

A new class of antibiotics could help treat drug-resistant tuberculosis and other bacterial infections, according to scientists at Rutgers University's Howard Hughes Institute. Lead researcher Richard Ebright and colleagues discovered three naturally occurring antibiotic compounds that can be used to create new drugs that unleash "a kind of chemical warfare against other bacteria."

Approximately a quarter of all deaths worldwide result from bacteria-borne diseases, many of which are becoming resistant to available antibiotics. "For six decades, antibiotics have been our bulwark against bacterial infectious diseases," explained Ebright. "Now, this bulwark is collapsing. There is an urgent need for new antibiotic compounds and practical new targets."

The new antibiotic class holds special promise for TB, which infects up to one in three people worldwide and is increasingly resistant to current treatments. It could also significantly shorten current TB regimens, which can last up to six months.

"The Holy Grail in TB therapy is to reduce the course of therapy from six months to two weeks -- to make treatment of TB like treatment of other bacterial infections," said Ebright.

"With a six-month course of therapy for a disease that is largely centered in the Third World, the logistical problems of administering therapy over space and time make eradication a non-starter. If there were a two-week course of therapy, the logistics would be manageable, and the disease could be eradicated," Ebright added.

The study, "The RNA Polymerase 'Switch Region' Is a Target for Inhibitors," was published in the journal Cell (2008;135(2):295-307).

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