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Slow-Growing TB Bacteria May Help In New Drug Development
Until now it was thought that M. tuberculosis bacteria in the lungs of TB patients were rapidly multiplying. However recent research by Dr Simon Waddell and colleagues from St George's University of London and the University of Leicester, using gene chips to look at how TB bacteria behave in different environments, revealed that the tuberculosis bacteria in the sputum (phlegm coughed from the lungs) of TB patients resemble bacteria that are growing very slowly or hardly at all. This has caused concern, as slowly growing bacteria are non-responsive to treatment with isoniazid, one of the main antibiotics used to treat TB. This may be the reason why it takes six months to treat pulmonary TB successfully, whereas most bacterial infections are treated in days. This prolonged treatment often leads people to stop taking their medicines early or only to take them intermittently, which can cause relapses and the emergence of antibiotic resistance.
"Our observations imply that either a large number of the infecting bacteria in the lungs are not multiplying rapidly as previously suggested; or the bacteria are adapting by not growing when they are coughed from the lungs into the air," said Dr Waddell, presenting his findings at the Society for General Microbiology meeting at Harrogate today (Monday 30 March).
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