Tuberculosis News and Research

Latest Tuberculosis News and Research

Kingston University professor receives prestigious prize for work on drug metabolism

The Dean of the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Computing at London's Kingston University has received a prestigious prize recognising her lifetime's work on drug metabolism.

9 Jan 2013

New compound restores health of mice with MRSA infection

Researchers have discovered a new compound that restores the health of mice infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an otherwise dangerous bacterial infection. The new compound targets an enzyme not found in human cells but which is essential to bacterial survival.

8 Jan 2013

Support innovative financing mechanisms for global health

"Millions of lives are saved today in developing countries because of bold, innovative financing arrangements over last 10 years.

8 Jan 2013

Reflecting on FDA approval of new TB drug

Noting "the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced that it has approved a new treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) that can be used as an alternative when other drugs fail," Kim Lufkin, communications officer at the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), writes in the coalition's "Breakthroughs" blog, "There is a pressing and urgent need for even more new TB drugs, which makes this new FDA approval so significant."

7 Jan 2013

Researchers uncover new way that some bacteria survive when under siege by antibiotics

Researchers have uncovered a new way that some bacteria survive when under siege by antibiotics.

4 Jan 2013

Optofluidics allow for new understanding of resistance to antibiotics

It's often difficult to completely eliminate a bacterial infection with antibiotics; part of the population usually manages to survive. We've known about this phenomenon for quite some time, dating back nearly to the discovery of penicillin. For more than 50 years, scientists have believed that the resistant bacteria were individuals that had stopped growing and dividing.

4 Jan 2013

CXCR5 molecule effectively polices lung tuberculosis and prevents deadly infection

The presence of a certain molecule allows the immune system to effectively police tuberculosis (TB) of the lungs and prevent it from turning into an active and deadly infection, according to a new study led by researchers at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

3 Jan 2013

Wall Street Journal looks at European efforts to fight TB

The Wall Street Journal examines efforts to fight tuberculosis (TB) in Europe, writing, "All along the edges of Western Europe, new and hard-to-defeat strains of tuberculosis are gaining a foothold, often moving beyond traditional victims -- alcoholics, drug users, HIV patients -- and into the wider population."

3 Jan 2013

FDA grants accelerated approval to drug to treat MDR-TB

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved Johnson & Johnson's drug to treat a form of resistant tuberculosis that is uncommon in the U.S. but growing globally," the Wall Street Journal reports.

3 Jan 2013

More work ahead in TB drug development, treatment delivery

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of the tuberculosis (TB) drug Sirturo, also known as bedaquiline, "appears to be just the first step in an exciting renaissance for TB drug development," Mark Harrington, executive director of Treatment Action Group (TAG), writes in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog.

3 Jan 2013

Reviewing G-FINDER report findings

Nick Chapman, a policy analyst at Policy Cures, writes in a guest post on the Global Health Technologies Coalition's "Breakthroughs" blog about "the results of the latest G-FINDER survey on global funding of [research and development (R&D)] for neglected diseases."

21 Dec 2012

U.S. 'unprepared for' resurgence of MDR-TB, Wall Street Journal reports

"Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is at epidemic proportions in some parts of the world -- a growing problem the U.S. is surprisingly unprepared for," the Wall Street Journal reports.

21 Dec 2012

Ebselen effectively inhibits thioredoxin reductase system in H. pylori, M. tuberculosis

A drug currently being used to treat ischemic strokes may prove to be a significant advance in the treatment of tuberculosis and ulcers. In a new research report appearing online in The FASEB Journal, a compound called ebselen effectively inhibits the thioredoxin reductase system in a wide variety of bacteria, including Helicobacter pylori which causes gastric ulcers and Mycobacterium tuberculosis which causes tuberculosis.

21 Dec 2012

U.S. preparedness for drug-resistant TB strains questioned

Multidrug-resistant TB is at epidemic proportions in some parts of the world -- a growing problem the U.S. is surprisingly unprepared for. The U.S. beat back multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the 1990s.

20 Dec 2012

Enlarged lymph nodes may warn of cancer

Enlarged lymph nodes are a marker for both occult cancer and a long-term risk for malignancy, confirms research published in the British Journal of Haematology.

19 Dec 2012

Zoo data show low incidence of animal–human infection

Zoonotic transmission rates are low and the risk for animal–human infection is well managed, show zoo data spanning 19 years.

19 Dec 2012

Continued U.S. leadership crucial to building on global progress against TB

Tuberculosis (TB) "is the second leading cause of death due to infectious disease worldwide; taking approximately 1.4 million lives in 2011 alone," Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), a co-chair of the TB Elimination Caucus, writes in an opinion piece in The Hill's "Congress Blog".

19 Dec 2012

New antibiotic principle for fighting bacterial infections

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have presented a new principle for fighting bacterial infections, in other words, a new type of antibiotic, in the FASEB Journal.

19 Dec 2012

Infectex initiates enrollment in SQ109 Phase IIb-III trial for MDR-TB

Infectex, a Russian biotech company in Maxwell Biotech Venture Fund's portfolio, announced today enrollment of the first patients in its Phase IIb-III clinical trial of SQ109 for MDR-TB. Infectex was founded in 2011 to develop and commercialize innovative products for the treatment of TB.

19 Dec 2012

Global Fund, Nigeria sign grants for HIV, TB initiatives

"On Thursday (Dec. 14), Nigeria signed five grant agreements with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria," with some of the money going "to provide for antiretroviral therapy treatment and prevention services, particularly on mother-to-child HIV transmission," Devex's "The Development Newswire" blog reports.

18 Dec 2012