Most humans would like to shed their fatty exteriors, but tuberculosis (TB)-causing bacteria rely on theirs for survival. Scientists at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)-New Jersey Medical School have now discovered a drug that cripples the TB bug by dissolving its protective fatty coating, a finding that could eventually be used to improve TB treatment in humans. The study has been posted online by Nature Chemical Biology.

Innovative and potentially game-changing clinical trials to develop new drug regimens to prevent and treat tuberculosis (TB), the second leading global infectious disease killer, are in jeopardy due to federal "sequestration" funding cuts. New CDC-funded TB treatment study findings were announced today in Philadelphia at the American Thoracic Society annual meeting where, paradoxically, CDC scientists and participants were unable to attend. CDC TB experts were almost entirely absent from the ATS International Conference this year, also due to the implementation of federal budget sequestration. The new research findings unveiled by the Tuberculosis Clinical Trials Consortium (TBTC) at the ATS Conference today show a promising way forward for shortening the current six month treatment regimen down to a three to four month regimen.