Tuberculosis research: promising new active agent
Tuberculosis is the most common infectious disease worldwide. In the year 2023 alone, there were 10.6 million new infections and 1.3 million deaths. “We urgently need an effective new drug to fight tuberculosis, especially in view of the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant strains,” says Scientific Program Manager Dr. Julia Dreisbach, who, together with Professor Michael Hoelscher, Director of the Institute of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at LMU, is leading the development of new drugs against the dangerous disease. The European-African network PanACEA – a consortium of tuberculosis researchers from five European and eleven African institutions – has carried out a study which reveals the promise of a novel antibiotic and published the results in the medical journal The Lancet Microbe. BTZ-043 was discovered by the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology - Hans Knöll Institute (Leibniz-HKI) in Jena and further developed in collaboration with the Institute of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at LMU University Hospital Munich and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) in preclinical and clinical studies. If the ongoing clinical trials are successful, it could play a key role in the global fight against tuberculosis.
The researchers investigated the safety and tolerability of the product in 77 adults with newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis in Cape Town, South Africa. “The study demonstrates the antibacterial efficacy and tolerability of BTZ-043 and shows that it can be administered in combination with other tuberculosis drugs,” summarizes PD Dr. Norbert Heinrich, Senior Physician and Scientific Lead Tuberculosis. Discovered by researchers at the Leibniz-HKI in Jena and developed in a collaboration between LMU University Hospital and Leibniz-HKI, the active agent suppresses an enzyme that tuberculosis pathogens need to build their cell walls, causing them to disintegrate and die.
PanACEA is one of the first adaptive model-based dose-finding studies for a tuberculosis drug and the first of its kind to be carried out in Africa. “The innovative design of the study, including evaluations of the food effects and the interactions between drugs, allows us to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the optimal administration of BTZ-043,” says Norbert Heinrich.
This study is part of the EDCTP2 programme (grant TRIA2015–1102) and funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research (01KA1701); German Center for Infection Research; InfectControl (03ZZ0803A, 03ZZ0835A, and 03ZZ0826A); Bavarian State Chancellery together with the Bavarian Ministry for Science and the Arts; Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation; and Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek.
Hapila GmbH, Gera, produces BTZ-043 and provides all analytical standards for LMU Klinikum and Leibniz-HKI.
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