![Purging Persister Bacteria in TB Treatment]()
Tuberculosis treatment is hampered by patients’ need to undergo six months of drug treatment—necessary because of the presence of “persister” bacteria that don’t immediately succumb to treatment and may become resistant to it. In a paper published online on April 10 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers led by William Jacobs, Jr., Ph.D., looked at whether adding chemicals to current drug regimens could decrease the length of treatment time by targeting persisters. Dr. Jacobs and colleagues found they could prevent persisters from developing by augmenting treatment with N-acetylcysteine, an amino acid derivative previously approved for treating acetaminophen overdose. Dr. Jacobs is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the Leo and Julia Forchheimer Chair in Microbiology & Immunology.
Posted on: Friday, April 28, 2017