A novel type of antibiotic has been shown in laboratory tests to powerfully attack and control tuberculosis, and some experts predict it could become the first new drug in 40 years to combat the killer disease effectively. Results from mouse experiments conducted by researchers in a Belgium lab of Johnson & Johnson suggest the new drug works better and faster than current medications, suggesting it could reduce by half the time required to cure TB. Early trials show the new drug is safe, and human testing is under way. Clinicians say there is a critical need for a new tuberculosis treatment because the disease has become increasingly resistant to current drugs. TB kills more than 2 million people a year worldwide. The last major new TB drug, rifampin, was introduced in 1963. The candidate drug, R207910, is part of a new group of anti-TB compounds called diarylquinolines, or DARQ. It attacks tuberculosis by neutralizing an enzyme the TB bacillus uses to make energy. This mechanism is different from that of rifampin, isoniazid and pyrazinamide, the cocktail of drugs that is standard treatment for TB. Dr. Koen Andries, lead author of a study on the drug published this week in the journal Science, said experiments with a laboratory-mouse species commonly used to test TB drugs show the new compound concentrates in the lungs and other organs that are the major targets of tuberculosis.
