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Wisconsin chemists find a new chink in TB's armor - 5/1/2004
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The family of bacteria that causes tuberculosis (TB) and leprosy are
notoriously sturdy. And although the diseases they cause have been held
in check for the past 50 years by antibiotics, some strains are
becoming increasingly resistant to existing therapy.
Now, however, a new chink has been found in the cellular armor that makes
these infectious diseases difficult to treat. The discovery, reported
today (May 9) in the online editions of the journal Nature Structural
& Molecular Biology by a team of chemists and biochemists from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison, opens the door to the development of a
new family of antibiotics to treat diseases that still claim as many as
3 million lives annually worldwide.
"Most of the treatments we have for these diseases date from the 1950s," says
Laura L. Kiessling, a UW-Madison professor of chemistry and the leader
of the team reporting the new discovery. "Many traditional antibiotics
don't work against tuberculosis."
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