NIAID Grantees Develop Way to Make Old Antibiotic Work against TB

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NIAID Grantees Develop Way to Make Old Antibiotic Work against TB

Compounds Helped Mice Infected with TB Bacteria

Scientists supported by NIAID, part of the National Institutes of Health, have developed a method to synthesize modified forms of an established antibiotic called spectinomycin. The modified forms, unlike the original drug, can act against tuberculosis (TB) bacteria. The new compounds overcome a pump mechanism that TB bacteria ordinarily use to expel standard spectinomycin and were highly effective when tested in mice with either acute or chronic TB infection.

More information about the new research is available here: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2014/Pages/spectinomycin.aspx.