TUBERCULOSIS is still one of the world’s biggest killers. No new drug has
been developed against TB for 30 years, and the disease is becoming increasingly
resistant to existing antibiotics, especially in the industrialised world. But
Canadian researchers told the ICAAC meeting about a chink in TB’s armour. They
have found a way to sabotage a key part of the bacterium’s biochemical
machinery.
Along with researchers at the University of British Columbia, a team led by
Barbara Waters and Julian Davies at TerraGen Discovery in Vancouver has
identified chemicals that inhibit key bacterial enzymes called protein kinases.
Once thought to…
