Kiwis in TB drug discovery

Kiwi scientists have discovered a novel property of a new antituberculosis drug which may help develop more drugs to treat the world’s biggest-killing infectious disease.

Globally, there are about 1.7 million deaths annually attributed to tuberculosis (TB) with rising incidents of drug-resistant TB.

Professor Greg Cook from the University of Otago’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology, along with post-doctoral fellow Dr Kiel Hards, has been investigating one of the first new TB drugs approved in more than 40 years, Bedaquiline — which is sold under the brand name Sirturo.

Bedaquiline is the first new drug to be developed after four decades of searching for more effective drugs that combat TB and was only approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2012.

But Cook said one drug wouldn’t be enough to reverse a 40-year lull in drug development.

“So our lab is actively searching for new TB drugs to complement Bedaquiline and expand the treatment options available to clinicians worldwide.”

To develop even better drugs to combat TB, it was important to understand why Bedaquiline was so good in the first place.

“The most promising aspects of the drug are its ability to shorten treatment timeframe to eight weeks and that its target is unconventional for an antimicrobial,” Hards said.

“Bedaquiline disrupts the ability of M. tuberculosis to generate energy,” he said.