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Tuberculosis, a serious infectious disease, one of the most deadly, can be complicated by so-called “drug-resistant” tuberculosis. And if it were possible now to consider an alternative strategy for treating “drug-resistant” tuberculosis ? This suggests the conclusions of a new scientific study that highlights a chemical compound with a dual action against this pathology. We take stock.
Tuberculosis and risk of antibiotic resistance
Tuberculosis is one of the deadliest serious infectious diseases. It is estimated to have caused 1.3 million deaths worldwide in 2022! This disease is caused by bacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the respiratory tract and lungs and is accompanied by symptoms such as cough, bloody sputum and chest pain. But it can also affect other organs or remain dormant in certain cells! Transmission of tuberculosis from one person to another occurs easily through the spread of droplets in the air when the infected person coughs, sneezes or spits.
Due to the variety of organs that can be affected, Tuberculosis is subject to combination therapy. In fact, the condition is treated with four antibiotics for two months and then two antibiotics for four months. However, this does not take into account the fact that the patient can develop antibiotic resistance if treated improperly. The bacterium becomes resistant to one or more antibiotics and the patient then develops what is known as resistant or “multi-resistant” tuberculosis.
Knowledge ! “Multi-resistant” tuberculosis refers to the simultaneous resistance of the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis to the two most important effective antibiotics. If the strain is resistant to many other antibiotics, it is called “extra-resistant” tuberculosis.
Or, The treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is much more complex and longer than in sensitive tuberculosis because the molecules are less effective. Treatment for multi- or extra-resistant tuberculosis usually combines 5 to 6 antibiotics to which the strain is sensitive, over a period of 18 to 24 months!
Also read – Tuberculosis: a 10% increase in the Ile de France
An active ingredient with dual action against multidrug-resistant tuberculosis
French and German researchers are aware of this problem and have addressed it Look for an alternative treatment strategy for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. For their work, they analyzed thousands of chemical molecules using high-throughput technology. The goal? Evaluate their ability to target a tuberculosis virulence factor to block the proliferation of bacteria in human immune cells. This approach has led scientists to identify interesting compounds that can attack targets other than traditional antibiotics.
By analyzing the mechanism of action of these compounds in more detail, the scientists then discovered that some of them played a dual role: they attacked the virulence factors of tuberculosis and enhanced the antibiotic effectiveness of ethionamide. Among these compounds are Researchers have used it to identify a chemical compound called oxadiazole with dual effects against drug-resistant tuberculosis :
Also read – WHO wants to end tuberculosis by 2030
Towards a better treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis?
Published in the magazine Cell chemical biologyThe results of this work are encouraging in that they open up new perspectives for the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. It could therefore be possible to achieve this by targeting two different mechanisms of action reduce the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance while increasing the effectiveness of conventional antibiotics.
For the authors of this work, they combine the fight against virulence factors with the fight against antibiotic resistance “represents an unexplored avenue in the fight against mycobacterial infections.” A discovery all the more interesting because it comes in a worrying global context characterized by the emergence of resistant mycobacteria in Asia.
Also read – Will the end of multi-resistant tuberculosis soon?
Déborah L., doctor of pharmacy
Sources
– Drug-resistant tuberculosis: encouraging discovery of an alternative treatment strategy. www.lequotidiendumedecin.fr. Accessed January 15, 2024.
– Discovery of dual-active ethionamide boosters that inhibit the secretion system of Mycobacterium tuberculosis ESX-1. www.cell.com. Consult on January 15, 2024.
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