Here’s a little good news for your Friday: two FDA-approved drugs were found to block the growth of certain strains of extremely drug resistant Tuberculosis (XDR TB). While this chance discovery occurred in the lab, clinical trials on humans are now being planned in South Korea and South Africa.

Excerpts below, full article here

Scientists have reported their breakthrough in the latest issue of the ‘Science’ journal. Speaking to TOI, Dr John Blanchard, professor of biochemistry at Einstein and senior author of the paper, said that in the lab, scientists successfully killed all XDR TB bacteria in less than two weeks time.

Dr Blanchard said, “The entire discovery happened by chance. We didn’t set out to see whether these two drugs, alone or in combination, fought TB. Now, after three years of lab research, Clavulanate was found to be highly effective in inhibiting the crucial enzyme that shields TB bacteria while Meropenem was highly effective in killing the TB organism completely.”

He added, “Normally, it takes two years of continuous therapy to treat drug resistant TB strains. If this combination works in humans, we will be able to completely eliminate the organism within two weeks time.”

-Rena Pacheco-Theard