A new treatment, studied in both in cells and mice, can counter the resistance to antibiotics of the bacteria that causes tuberculosis (TB). TB is an ancient bacterial disease that still persists today – according to the World Health Organization, and reported in Medical Xpresss, it kills someone around the globe every 22 seconds. The bacteria strain called Mycobacterium tuberculosis has the ability to repel the antibiotics that are commonly used to treat TB, such as ethionamide. In an effort to counter this, researchers from the University of Lille, the Institute of Pasteur, and CNRS, in France, together with scientists from EARA member the University Libre de Bruxelles, and Sciensano, Belgium, as well as BioVersys, Switzerland, and EARA member GSK, have found that a specific molecule (SMARt751) can help ethionamide perform as an active drug against the bacteria. The study appears in Science Translational Medicine.

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