(Press-News.org) WHAT:Pyrazinamide has been used in combination with other drugs as a first-line treatment for people with tuberculosis (TB) since the 1950s, but exactly how the drug works has not been well understood. Now, researchers have discovered a key reason why the drug effectively shortens the required duration of TB therapy. The finding potentially paves the way for the development of new drugs that can help eliminate TB in an infected individual even more rapidly. The study was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and published online on August 11 in Science Express.
Unlike most first-line TB drugs, pyrazinamide does not directly kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB, grown in a test tube; rather, the drug acts only on latent TB bacteria that exist in an acidic environment in the body. From previous studies, the investigators knew that shortly after pyrazinamide enters latent M. tuberculosis in the body, the drug converts to its active form, pyrazinoic acid (POA). But they did not know how POA then killed the bacteria, thereby shortening the normal 9- to 12-month course of therapy by several months.
In this study, the researchers learned that once formed, POA binds to a vital bacterial cell protein, ribosomal protein S1 (RpsA), blocking RpsA from decoding M. tuberculosis DNA to create other proteins that keep the bacteria alive in the body. The investigators note that their results explain the mechanism of this enigmatic TB drug, which could assist researchers attempting to develop improved TB drug treatment regimens.
###
ARTICLE:
W Shi et al. Pyrazinamide inhibits trans-translation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Science Express. DOI: 10.1126/science.1208813 (2011).
WHO:
Clifton E. Barry, Ph.D., chief of NIAID's Tuberculosis Research Section, Laboratory of Clinical Infectious Diseases, and a co-author of the paper, is available to discuss this study.
CONTACT:
To schedule interviews, please contact Nalini Padmanabhan, (301) 402-1663, padmanabhannm@niaid.nih.gov.
NIAID conducts and supports research—at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide—to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov/.
Scientists explain unique activity of TB drug pyrazinamide
2011-08-12
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Stanford engineers redefine how the brain plans movement
2011-08-12
In 1991, Carl Lewis was both the fastest man on earth and a profound long jumper, perhaps the greatest track-and-field star of all time in the prime of his career. On June 14th of that year, however, Carl Lewis was human. Leroy Burrell blazed through the 100-meters, besting him by a razor-thin margin of three-hundredths of a second. In the time it takes the shutter to capture a single frame of video, Lewis's three-year-old world record was gone.
In a paper just published in the journal Neuron, a team at the Stanford School of Engineering, led by electrical engineers Krishna ...
Carnegie Mellon scientists discover how molecular motors go into 'energy save mode'
2011-08-12
PITTSBURGH—The transport system inside living cells is a well-oiled machine with tiny protein motors hauling chromosomes, neurotransmitters and other vital cargo around the cell. These molecular motors are responsible for a variety of critical transport jobs, but they are not always on the go. They can put themselves into "energy save mode" to conserve cellular fuel and, as a consequence, control what gets moved around the cell, and when.
A new study from Carnegie Mellon University and the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research published in the Aug. 12 issue of Science ...
Federal Court Rules Florida State Drug Law Unconstitutional
2011-08-12
A federal judge in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida has ruled that Florida drug crime laws violated a defendant's due process rights. At issue was whether prosecutors must prove that an accused drug trafficker had knowledge of drug possession, which is a fundamental legal principle in American criminal justice and the common law that preceded it.
Amendments to Florida's criminal code in 2002 removed the mens rea requirement from the Drug Abuse Prevention and Control law. The term is Latin for "guilty mind" and is best summed ...
University of Colorado Cancer Center genetically sequences most common bladder cancer
2011-08-12
August 11, 2011 (Aurora, CO)--In an article published online this week in Nature Genetics, a University of Colorado Cancer Center team in partnership with universities in China and Denmark reports the first genetic sequencing of urothelial (transitional) carcinoma, the most prevalent type of bladder cancer.
Recognizing the genetic mutations that make bladder cancer cells different than their healthy neighbors may allow early genetic screenings for cancer and new therapies targeting cells with these mutations. In addition, the mutations the team found are similar to those ...
Carnegie Mellon's Nicolas Christin tracks illegal online pharmacies
2011-08-12
PITTSBURGH—A growing number of illegal online pharmacies are flooding the web trying to sell dangerous unauthorized prescriptions, according to a new report from cybersecurity experts at Carnegie Mellon University.
Report authors Nicolas Christin, associate director of the Information Networking Institute (INI) and a senior systems scientist at the INI and CyLab along with Nektarios Leontiadis from the Department of Engineering and Public Policy (EPP), and Tyler Moore from Wellesley College, found that rogue websites were redirecting consumers to illicit pharmacies. ...
Contrary to earlier findings, excess body fat in elderly decreases life expectancy
2011-08-12
LOMA LINDA, Calif. – While some past studies have shown that persons carrying a few extra pounds in their 70s live longer than their thinner counterparts, a new study that measured subjects' weight at multiple points over a longer period of time reveals the opposite.
Research from Adventist Health Studies recently published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society showed that men over 75 with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 22.3 had a 3.7-year shorter life expectancy, and women over 75 with a BMI greater than 27.4 had a 2.1-year shorter life expectancy. ...
New Jersey's Foreclosure Mediation Program
2011-08-12
If you are facing foreclosure in New Jersey, you need to know what your options are. Where can you turn for assistance?
It's good to have a private attorney on your side. A lawyer experienced with foreclosure and debt relief issues can play a key role in helping your get your arms around what you need to do to keep your house.
In New Jersey, there is also the state's Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program. This program educates homeowners and broadens the options available to them.
Foreclosures Continue
In January of this year, RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure ...
Alcohol consumption in relation to acute pancreatitis
2011-08-12
A study on the effect of different alcoholic beverages and drinking behaviour on the risk of acute pancreatitis was conducted, using the Swedish Mammography Cohort and Cohort of Swedish Men, to study the association between consumption of spirits, wine and beer and the risk of acute pancreatitis.
In total, 84,601 individuals, aged 46-84 years, were followed for a median of 10 years, of whom 513 developed acute pancreatitis. There was a dose–response association between the amount of spirits consumed on a single occasion and the risk of acute pancreatitis. After multivariable ...
Mistaken Identity Rape Case in Massachusetts Finally Comes to an End
2011-08-12
Sexual assault charges can bring tremendous notoriety and an immediate risk to the accused offender's freedom. Law enforcement gives cases involving rape, child molestation, indecent assault and other sex crimes focused attention, and the police often rush to apprehend a suspect if the victim does not personally know the alleged assailant. This means that anyone matching the description given by the victim will be at risk for being accused and charged with the crime, particularly if that person is at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Such was the case when a so-called ...
Researchers decode workings of mysterious, but critical TB drug
2011-08-12
For nearly 60 years, Pyrazinamide (PZA) has been used in conjunction with other medications to treat tuberculosis (TB), but scientists did not fully understand how the drug killed TB bacteria. PZA plays a unique role in shortening the duration of current TB therapy to six months and is used frequently to treat multi-drug resistant TB. A new study, led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, suggests that PZA binds to a specific protein named RpsA and inhibits trans-translation, a process that enables the TB bacteria to survive under stressful ...