• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Friday, September 5, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

Tailor-made therapy of multi-resistant tuberculosis

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
May 3, 2021
in Health
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
IMAGE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

IMAGE

Credit: Research Center Borstel, the Leibniz Lung Center

Globally, tuberculosis is the most common bacterial infectious disease leading to death. The pathogen causing tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has a number of peculiarities. One is that it is growing very slowly. While other typical pathogens, such as pneumococcal and pseudomonads, can already be identified by their growth in the microbiological laboratory in the first 72 hours, several weeks usually pass before tuberculosis bacteria grow in the lab. Thus it often takes one to two months before the efficacy of individual medicines can be tested.

However, these efficacy tests are essential for the effective treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), which is becoming increasingly common. In these cases, the pathogen has become resistant, i.e. insensitive, to the best tuberculosis drugs, rifampicin and isoniazid. This is due to changes in the genome, so-called mutations, which almost always occur at the same points in the genome. Treatment of MDR-TB is protracted, costly and frequently associated with side effects.

For the selection of antibiotics in a combination therapy, doctors have so far depended on the results of the drug test after cultivation. “Currently, 15 drugs are available for second-line therapy, of which at least four are used in combination,” explains Prof. Christoph Lange, coordinator of the clinical study at the Research Center Borstel.

In order to accelerate the choice of the most effective antibiotics, DZIF scientists at the Research Center Borstel, led by Prof. Stefan Niemann, have created a catalogue of mutations in the genetic material of tuberculosis bacteria that permits prediction of antibiotic resistances of the bacteria against all drugs. Unlike many other bacteria, the genetic material of the tuberculosis bacteria hardly changes over time. The genome of tuberculosis bacteria carries roughly 4.4 millions of building blocks (base pairs) that store the information for about 4,000 genes.

Hans-Peter Grobbel, medical student and predoctoral DZIF fellow in Christoph Lange’s team, supported by his fellow student Niklas Köhler, Professor Matthias Merker, Dr Sönke Andres and Dr Harald Hoffmans, has examined the results of antibiotic resistance predictions through overall genome analyses. Using tuberculosis bacteria from70 patients with MDR-TB treated at the Borstel Department of Medicine, researchers compared the molecular prediction of antibiotic resistance with actual cultural test results. They were contributed by Prof. Florian Maurer, Head of the National Reference Laboratory for Tuberculosis Bacteria in Borstel. The scientists also examined whether reliable combinations of drugs for the treatment of MDR-TB could be compiled based on the prediction of the bacteria´s genetic material.

“Ninety-nine per cent of all drugs in combination therapies that we have assembled based on the results of molecular predictions from the genetic material of tuberculosis bacteria are also effective according to traditional microbiological antibiotic resistance testing,” Grobbel explains. By now, the molecular methods are both cheap and fast. Ideally, patients can already receive tailored MDR-TB treatment in the first week of their tuberculosis diagnosis.

###

Media Contact
Prof. Christoph Lange
[email protected]

Original Source

https://www.dzif.de/en/tailor-made-therapy-multi-resistant-tuberculosis

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab359

Tags: Infectious/Emerging DiseasesMedicine/Health
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

COVID-19 Disruption Accelerates Chronic Kidney Disease Progression

September 5, 2025

Unraveling Delirium: Do Medications Play a Role?

September 5, 2025

New Study Reveals Connection Between Rugby Participation and Dementia Risk

September 5, 2025

Turmeric’s Impact on Knee Osteoarthritis: A Review

September 5, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • blank

    Breakthrough in Computer Hardware Advances Solves Complex Optimization Challenges

    149 shares
    Share 60 Tweet 37
  • Molecules in Focus: Capturing the Timeless Dance of Particles

    142 shares
    Share 57 Tweet 36
  • New Drug Formulation Transforms Intravenous Treatments into Rapid Injections

    115 shares
    Share 46 Tweet 29
  • Modified DASH Diet Reduces Blood Sugar Levels in Adults with Type 2 Diabetes, Clinical Trial Finds

    61 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

COVID-19 Disruption Accelerates Chronic Kidney Disease Progression

Unraveling Delirium: Do Medications Play a Role?

New Study Reveals Connection Between Rugby Participation and Dementia Risk

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.