[afro-nets] Novel Test Drug Offers New Hope for Tuberculosis Treatment

[Leela McCullough <leela@healthnet.org>]

Novel Test Drug Offers New Hope for Tuberculosis Treatment
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CDC HIV/STD/TB Prevention News Update
Friday, December 10, 2004
The CDC National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention provides
the following information as a public service only.

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                          MEDICAL NEWS
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BELGIUM:
"Novel Test Drug Offers New Hope for Tuberculosis Treatment"

Associated Press (12.09.04): Paul Recer

Studies of a new type of antibiotic to treat TB suggest the drug
works better and faster than existing TB drugs and could cut in
half the time required to cure the deadly disease, according to
researchers in the Belgium lab of Johnson & Johnson. The candi-
date drug, R207910, is part of a new class of anti-TB compounds
called diarylquinolines (DARQ). R207910 attacks TB by neutraliz-
ing an enzyme Mycobacterium tuberculosis uses to make energy.
This mechanism differs from the standard cocktail of drugs - ri-
fampin, isoniazid and pyrazinamide - currently used to treat TB.

Dr. Koen Andries and colleagues reported that experiments with a
laboratory mouse species commonly used to test TB drugs showed
R207910 concentrates in the lungs and other organs targeted by
TB. Tests indicated the new compound was as active against TB as
the drugs in the standard cocktail. And when combined with
isoniazid and pyrazinamide, said Andries, R207910 "achieves the
same result after one month as is being obtained in two months
by the standard care therapy." "That is why we are quite opti-
mistic that we would be able to shorten treatment duration sub-
stantially, by about 50 percent," he added.

When tested on healthy adults, R207910 was found to be safe and
well tolerated, said Andries. The DARQ compound is currently be-
ing tested in humans with active TB. Andries cautioned that it
may be five years before the drug reaches the market.

Dr. Lee Reichman, executive director of the New Jersey Medical
School National Tuberculosis Center, said the results reported
by Andries' team were "dynamite stuff." "This mouse model is a
very good portend for what will happen in humans," said
Reichman. "They've shown convincingly that it kills the [TB] or-
ganism. It seems to exceed rifampin, which is the best drug we
have."

Reichman noted the importance of shortening the treatment time
for TB. Curing TB with the current drug cocktail takes six to
nine months, making it more likely that patients will interrupt
treatment or inappropriately use the drugs, Reichman said. This
can result in patients developing drug-resistant strains of TB,
he added.

Andries said patients coinfected with HIV and TB could use a
combination of R207910, isoniazid and pyrazinamide is conjunc-
tion with HIV drugs. The current standard TB cocktail is incom-
patible with some HIV drugs due to an interaction with rifampin,
he said.

The full report, "A Diaryquinoline Drug Active on the ATP Syn-
thase of Mycobacterium tuberculosis," was published online Dec.
9, 2004, in Science (10.1126/science.1106753).

-- 
Leela McCullough, Ed.D.
Director of Information Services
SATELLIFE
30 California Street, Watertown, MA 02472, USA
Tel: +1-617-926-9400
Fax: +1-617-926-1212
mailto:leela@healthnet.org
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