
he 21st Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board retreat and meeting officially started in Bangkok, Thailand, on Sunday, January 29th with the official opening ceremony held yesterday January 30th. Included are some exciting news from the meeting courtesy of Mark Harrington, Executive Director of the Treatment Action Group (TAG).
This week’s article looks at host factors that contribute to the ability of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) to enter and survive within macrophages. The authors explore the role of tyrosine kinases (TKs) as a mediator for Mtb and the use of an inhibitor of TKs to act against Mtb and related bacteria. Additional links to TB R&D news is included
During last week, the Stop TB Partnership Working Group on New Drugs had a successful annual meeting in Lille, France, in conjunction with the 42nd Union World Conference. There were quite a few updates to the Global TB Drugs Pipeline showing progress toward the goal of better treatment for TB in all patient populations. Additional links to TB R&D news are included.
This week’s interview is with Dr. Sanjib Bhkata who is Head of Mycobacteria Research Laboratory, Microbiology, Department of Biological Sciences, Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology at the Birbeck University of London. Dr. Bhakta’s Laboratory has developed an innovative method for screening compounds that is more efficient and just as accurate as more widely used methods. Additional links to TB R&D news are included.
On September 16, the 4th International Workshop on Clinical Pharmacology of Tuberculosis Drugs was held adjacent to the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) which was held from September 17 to 19. Between the two meetings, there were many updates related to TB drug development. Additional links to TB R&D are included.
This week we highlight an article published out of Ying Zhang’s laboratory at Johns Hopkins University that puts forth a new model for the mode of action of pyrazinamide (PZA) and as well as suggest trans-translation as a potential target to consider in the development of new drugs for TB. Additional links to TB R&D news are included.