TB breakthrough should lead to a new range of TB inhibitors

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the deadliest infectious diseases worldwide that is spread in the air like the common cold. TB is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and was responsible for approximately 1.6 million deaths in 2021. Mtb will usually attack the lungs but can attack any part of the body. Drug resistant TB strains are spreading and present a major concern. New work and a paper by a team of scientists from Manchester, Cambridge and Huddersfield Universities using a structure-guided approach, combined with biophysical characterization obtained a series of compounds with activity against clinically relevant drug-resistant isolates. These will support further development of much-needed additional treatment options against Mtb.