New Compound Offers Promise in Treating Drug-Resistant TB

A new compound that is effective against drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis could be an extra weapon against the disease, Seattle scientists report in today’s Nature. PA-824, a drug developed by biotechnology company PathoGenesis Corp., has a different molecular target than TB treatments currently in use. Laboratory experiments and tests on mice and guinea pigs have proven its effectiveness, the researchers said. “It appears to work on all the drug-resistant forms of TB we have tested to date, because TB has never seen this drug before,” said biologist Kevin Stover of the company.

The World Health Organization has warned that multi-drug-resistant strains of TB--which are unaffected by the most powerful TB drugs--are taking hold in parts of China, India, Africa and the former Soviet Union.

Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II