Two-drug therapy offers hope for drug-resistant TB

New York, February 27: Meropenem and clavulanate, two FDA-approved antibiotics, when used in combination, appear to offer great promise against the deadly, extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), a new American study claims.

AstraZeneca's MERREM I.V (meropenem) when clubbed with GlaxoSmithKlines’ Clavulanate showed great potency in combating the XDR strains of TB, the researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York revealed.

Although the combination therapy is yet to be tested in humans, laboratory results have been extremely encouraging; together, they snapped 13 of the most deadly, drug-resistant TB strains, the researchers asserted.

One of the world's oldest killers, TB bacterium afflicts more than 1.5 million people globally, annually. Making matters worse, the TB strains are fast becoming resistant to available treatments, thus XDR-TB is virtually coming up as an incurable threat.

Unlike the antibiotics from the penicillin family that are rendered useless by the TB bacteria (especially by the ones that contain a certain enzyme), the new drug combination, called beta-lactamase, blocks and inhibits the enzyme.

William Jacobs, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Einstein, stated, “This discovery could be one of the most promising developments in TB research since the discovery of isoniazid -- it is very exciting."

"If proven in human subjects, the ability to simplify treatment to just two drugs that work against drug-susceptible [TB], multi-drug-resistant [TB] and XDR-TB could help patients better adhere to therapy" senior author of the study, John S. Blanchard, a professor of biochemistry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, said.

Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection caused by mycobacteria. Typically airborne (spreads by cough, sneeze, or spit of afflicted people), the bacterium invades the healthy human body through the respiratory tract. While it classically infects the lungs, the central nervous system, lymphatic system, circulatory system, genitourinary system and gastrointestinal systems, as well as bones, joints, and the skin are also at easy risk.

The characteristic symptoms of the infection include chronic cough, blood-tinged sputum, fever, night sweats, and acute weight loss.

The results of the study feature in the Feb. 27 issue of Science.