Protein Discovery Could Unlock The Secret To Better TB Treatment

Main Category: Tuberculosis
Article Date: 28 Feb 2005 - 11:00 PDT

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University College London (UCL) scientists have found a protein that could unlock the secret to quicker, more effective treatment of TB by waking TB bacteria in the body. Once the TB bacteria are active again, the disease becomes treatable using common drugs like antibiotics. Scientists believe that uncovering the molecular structure of this protein will lead the way to designing drugs which enable treatment of dormant and multidrug resistant TB.

In England and Wales around 400 people die each year from the disease. The top challenge for TB control in the European region is multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). Eight per cent of the bacteria causing TB in patients are resistant to one or more drugs and one per cent show multidrug resistance. Left untreated, a person with infectious TB of the lungs infects around 10 to 15 people every year.

In a study published on 1st March 2005 in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, a combined team discovered the structure of a protein known as resuscitation promoting factor (Rpf). Five versions of the Rpf protein exist in TB bacteria. The paper's unveiling of the molecular structure of Rpf could be crucial to the treatment of TB in the future.

Dr John Ward, Dept of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UCL, said: "The discovery of Rpf in the TB bacteria could allow the development of methods to 'wake-up' all dormant bacteria in a patient allowing antibiotics to kill the bacteria and cure the disease."

The team includes Prof Brian Henderson at the UCL Eastman Dental Institute, Nicholas Keep from Birkbeck, University of London, and John Ward at UCL as well as researchers from INSERM Montpellier.

Notes for Editors

1. 'The structure of a resuscitation-promoting factor domain from Mycobacterium tuberculosis shows homology to lysozymes'published in the 1st March addition of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology is available online at CLICK HERE

2. The top challenge for TB control in the European region, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), is" multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), HIV-related TB and TB control in prisons" More Information on the challenges of TB control can be found at the WHO website: euro.who.int/tuberculosis/issues/20030312_1

3. A table of figures for multidrug resistance can be found at: hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_az/tb/epidemiology/

4. More detailed information on TB can be found on the WHO website at: who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs104/en

5. In England and Wales around 400 people die each year from the disease according to the Health Protection Agency:
hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_az/tb/epidemiology/tab

6. For more information or to arrange interviews please contact Alex Brew in the UCL Media Relations Office on 0207 679 9726 or a.brew@ucl.ac.uk.

About UCL

Founded in 1826, UCL is the Sunday Times University of the Year 2004 and the fourth-ranked UK university in the top 500 world universities for 2004 league table produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence.

UCL's centres of excellence include: Slade School of Fine Art; Bartlett School of Architecture; Benfield Hazard Research Centre; Institute of Child Health; Institute of Ophthalmology (Moorfields); Institute of Neurology; Royal Free and University College Medical School.

UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi, Chaim Herzog, Junichiro Koizumi, Lord Woolf and members of the band Coldplay.

In October 2004 UCL launched Advancing London's Global University - the Campaign for UCL, a strategic plan to provide the university with the resources to develop a range of ground-breaking new projects, while reinforcing London's status as one of the world's great centres of knowledge. The Campaign seeks to raise �300 million over the coming decade.

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