Researchers find familial dissimilarities in proteins from two species of Mycobacterium.

An international study, led by researchers from the USA, which also included researchers from India, have designed a point-of-care testing approach for individuals suffering from TB. The study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine and supported in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, proposes a rapid, cost-effective, and readily accessible triage test kit that can be used at the site of patient care.

In 2018, around 1.5 million people died from tuberculosis (TB) — an infectious disease that mainly affects the lungs. A major obstacle in the clinical treatment of TB is the long therapy time required to clear the infection. An infected patient needs to take antibiotics for over 6 to 9 months to prevent a relapse — a duration so long that many discontinue their medications.

The success rate of the ambitious Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), driven by the Government of India, is appaling, reports a study.

A collaborative study by researchers from Punjab University, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, Banasthali University, TERI University and the Jawaharlal Nehru University has identified how a particular gene in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB), mutates to avoid the action of antibiotics.

Scientists from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, study what effect tuberculosis has on the immune system of our body.

A new study conducted by Pallavi Sinha and group from Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University and Boston Medical Centre has concluded that behavioral factors, like alcohol consumption and smoking, and clinical factors, like previous anti tubercular treatment, increases the risk of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB).

Tuberculosis(TB) has claimed 1.8 million human lives globally according to World Health Organization, in 2015. Despite Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, the only available vaccine for TB, currently one-third of the world is latently infected with TB due to the incompetence of BCG in adults against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria responsible for TB.

Scientists from the Central University of Gujarat (CUG), Gandhinagar, use computers to design the most efficient drug against TB. They apply pharmacophore modelling approach to understand the interactions between proteins found in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and the compounds which can suppress the bacteria. 

The whole world is struggling with the problem of antibiotic resistance developed by disease causing organisms. The epidemic of Tuberculosis especially plagues countries like India. In their recent research scientists from the Central University, Punjab have identified a new target drug to beat the bacteria’s defense against antibiotics.