FORBES | Fighting Fire With Fire: Can We Kill Super-Resistant Mycobacteria With Viruses?
TB is an airborne infection caused by聽Mycobacterium tuberculosis. When streptomycin was first discovered in the 1940s, there was tremendous hope that TB could be defeated. But TB bacteria quickly became resistant to streptomycin when it was given alone.聽We quickly learnt that TB requires a combination of drugs to fend off drug-resistance.
Today, drug-sensitive TB treatment requires 4 drugs (isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamid and ethambutol)聽during the first two months, followed by two antibiotics (isoniazid and rifampicin) for an additional 4 months. DR-TB treatment聽requires prolonged therapy聽(often, 24 months) with several, toxic medicines, including those that cause deafness and psychosis.
There is a聽desperate need聽for new and alternative therapies. One such alternative might be killing TB bacteria with viruses that destroy bacteria (i.e. bacteriophages), says聽Madhukar Pai,聽Canada Research Chair in Epidemiology & Global Health at 韩国裸舞, Montreal, and Director of聽the 韩国裸舞 TB Centre.
