Antifungal foot cream may offer a cure for tuberculosis, according to new research by Manchester University. The university biologists have shown that chemicals called azoles – the active agent in many antifungal drugs – kill the TB bacteria, and could be effective in tackling the emerging drug-resistant strains.
“TB is back with a vengeance with a third of the world’s population is currently infected,” said Professor Andrew Munro, who led the research in Manchester’s Faculty of Life Sciences.
“The class of drugs called azoles are able to kill off fungal infections by blocking the actions of one of its P450s that is essential for maintaining the cell structure,” said Professor Munro. “We were able to show in laboratory experiments that various types of these azole drugs were also very good at killing the TB bacterium, and also that they bind very tightly to a number of the TB P450 enzymes that we have isolated – inactivating their function.”
The research – published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry – offers the potential of a whole new approach to fighting the TB bug and has already attracted interest from one major pharmaceutical company.
Source: Manchester University Press Release
South East Wales Branch 26-Mar-2007
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