via EurekAlert!
Research led by the Centenary Institute in Sydney has found a brand new target for treating drug resistant tuberculosis; our scientists have uncovered that the tuberculosis bacterium hijacks platelets from the body’s blood clotting system to weaken our immune systems.
Tuberculosis is far from eradicated around the world and still infects more than 1,400 people per year in Australia. Antibiotic resistant tuberculosis is particularly deadly and expensive to treat,
costing up to $250,000 to treat a single case in Australia. Scientists at the Centenary Institute have been working on new ways to treat tuberculosis by increasing the effectiveness of the immune
system.
Using the zebrafish model of tuberculosis, the researchers used fluorescent microscopy to observe the build-up of clots and activation of platelets around sites of infection . Senior author and head of the Centenary’s Immune-Vascular Interactions laboratory, Dr Stefan Oehlers, says “the zebrafish gives us literal insight into disease processes by watching cells interacting in real time”.
Following their hunch that these platelets were being tricked by the infection into getting in the way of the body’s immune system, the researchers treated infections with anti-platelet drugs, including widely available aspirin, and were able to prevent hijacking and allow the body to control infection better.
Dr Elinor Hortle, lead author of the paper published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, and Research Officer in Centenary’s Immune-Vascular Interactions laboratory says “This is the first
time that platelets have been found to worsen tuberculosis in an animal model. It opens up the possibility that anti-platelet drugs could be used to help the immune system fight off drug resistant
TB”.
There are over 1.2 million Australians living with latent tuberculosis, a non-infectious form of TB that puts them at risk of developing the active disease. “Our study provides more crucial evidence
that widely available aspirin could be used to treat patients with severe tuberculosis infection and save lives,” says Dr Hortle.
Video 1 – Green platelets
zooming around the
vasculature of a zebrafish
embryo. Note some platelets
stick to red macrophages
infected by blue bacteria
Video 2 – Zoomed in version
of video 1 with visible blood
vessels.
Green platelets sticking to
red blood vessels next to
sites of infection by blue
bacteria. Pathogenic platelets
are the green cells that stick
next to the bacteria for a few
minutes.
Learn more: Aspirin to fight an expensive global killer infection
The Latest on: Tuberculosis
via Google News
The Latest on: Tuberculosis
- Tuberculosis Vaccine Treatment Market growing with Remarkable CAGR of 2.8% to Achieve 81 Million USD in 2025on March 4, 2021 at 11:04 pm
Request a sample Report of Tuberculosis Vaccine Treatment Market Analysis Report at: A study has been added recently by Market Study Report LLC, that claims the Tuberculosis Vaccine Treatment market ...
- Ancient DNA Reveals How Tuberculosis Shaped the Human Immune Systemon March 4, 2021 at 9:18 am
A new study employing ancient human DNA reveals how tuberculosis has affected European populations over the past 2,000 years.
- Ancient DNA reveals clues about how tuberculosis shaped the human immune systemon March 4, 2021 at 8:02 am
COVID-19 is only the latest infectious disease to have had an outsized impact on human life. A new study employing ancient human DNA reveals how tuberculosis has affected European populations over the ...
- Global Tuberculosis Drugs Market Outlook, Industry Analysis and Prospect 2020 -2026on March 4, 2021 at 5:45 am
Tuberculosis or TB is a contagious bacterial infection (caused by bacteria called "Mycobacterium Tuberculosis") that ...
- How tuberculosis reshaped our immune systemson March 4, 2021 at 12:17 am
Millions have died in those deadly pandemics, but their toll pales in comparison with that of tuberculosis (TB), which has killed more than 1 billion people over the past 2000 years—and still kills 1.
- Torres Strait: Tuberculosis fears trigger call for greater Cairns disease efforton March 2, 2021 at 7:33 pm
REPORTS of three Border Force officers contracting a devastating infectious disease have triggered calls to ramp up treatment and vaccine research in the Torres Strait.
- Development of a population pharmacokinetic model and Bayesian estimators for isoniazid in Tunisian tuberculosis patientson March 1, 2021 at 8:38 am
This study aimed to develop a population pharmacokinetic model using full pharmacokinetic (PK) profiles of isoniazid (INH) taking into account demographic and genetic covariates and to develop ...
- A lemur died from tuberculosis—a likely victim of the flourishing illegal pet tradeon February 23, 2021 at 2:04 pm
The ring-tailed lemur was emaciated and suffering from advanced tuberculosis by the time she was turned over to the rescue facility in southwestern Madagascar in April 2019. An alarming, golf ...
- A lemur died from tuberculosis. Here’s why that matters.on February 22, 2021 at 2:19 pm
The ring-tailed lemur was emaciated and suffering from advanced tuberculosis by the time she was turned over to the rescue facility in southwestern Madagascar in April 2019. An alarming, golf ...
- New biomarker predicts individual anti-tuberculosis treatment durationon February 20, 2021 at 10:51 am
When can tuberculosis therapy be stopped without risk of relapse? Doctors are faced with this question time and again, because the lack of detection of the tuberculosis pathogen Mycobacterium ...
via Bing News