To combat the disease that claims the lives of almost 4,000 people every day, researchers at the University of Otago have found new treatment options for tuberculosis (TB) strains that are resistant to antibiotics.The search for antibiotics that can quickly wipe out drug-resistant TB strains and, when combined, entirely prevent the development of drug resistance was led by Dr. Matthew McNeil, the lead author from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and Ph.D. candidate Natalie Waller.

As one of the most difficult infections to cure, TB is one of the leading causes of infectious disease morbidity and mortality worldwide, second only to COVID-19. About 4,000 individuals per day pass away from the illness, which affects ten million people annually. New Zealand diagnoses about 300 cases of TB annually.

Normally, antibiotic resistance results in decreased sensitivity, but, in some circumstances, becoming resistant to one antibiotic might make a disease more susceptible to other drugs that are completely unrelated. Collateral sensitivity, however, has not been well studied in TB up until now.

Hence, in the study, the researchers used a weakened, non-virulent strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis that cannot cause disease or survive outside of the lab to generate strains that were resistant to different antibiotics. The next step was to examine whether the bacterias drug-resistant strains had altered their sensitivity to other antibiotics.

The findings of the study showed that a particularly drug-resistant strain was more sensitive to antibiotics that targeted a completely unrelated pathway. 

(Source: https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/scientists-suggest-novel-ways-to-treat-antibiotic-resistant-strains-of-tuberculosis/99370524 )