SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the those-greybeards-might-have-been-on-to-something dept.
A centuries-old herbal medicine, discovered by Chinese scientists and used to effectively treat malaria, has been found to potentially aid in the treatment of tuberculosis and may slow the evolution of drug resistance.
In a promising study led by Robert Abramovitch, a Michigan State University microbiologist and TB expert, the ancient remedy artemisinin stopped the ability of TB-causing bacteria, known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, to become dormant. This stage of the disease often makes the use of antibiotics ineffective.
The study is published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.
"When TB bacteria are dormant, they become highly tolerant to antibiotics," Abramovitch said, an assistant professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine. "Blocking dormancy makes the TB bacteria more sensitive to these drugs and could shorten treatment times."
Huiqing Zheng, et. al., Inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DosRST signaling and persistence. Nature Chemical Biology, 2016; DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.2259
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 21 2016, @07:47PM
Marijuana works too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuhqkXKqAII [youtube.com]
In fact many medicines have come from plants etc that people have used[1]. Aspirin is a common example. There are others:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biguanide#History [wikipedia.org]
The biguanide class of antidiabetic drugs, which also includes the withdrawn agents phenformin and buformin, originates from the French lilac or goat's rue (Galega officinalis), a plant used in folk medicine for several centuries.
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_yeast_rice#Uses [wikipedia.org]
People can come up with useful working stuff without knowing the full theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inoculation#China [wikipedia.org]
But a fair bit of knowledge can be lost if stuff like this happens: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_books_and_burying_of_scholars [wikipedia.org]
Even those who didn't get killed might start keeping stuff secret. And there can be lots of unwritten knowledge for natural medicine. There's a story of some scientists asking some medicine person for herbs against snake venom, they got the herbs/medicine, tried it on rodents and it worked, but when they asked for more the medicine guy got suspicious and stopped cooperating. So they tried to get the same herbs themselves but the herbs they got didn't work. They didn't know the secret. Whether it was where or when it's plucked or how it was prepared etc. It's just like not all oranges are the same - some are sweet and some aren't, and some fruits look like oranges but have furanocoumarins. And not all chili peppers are of the same hotness.
[1] Apparently some pharma bunch go visit tribes to figure out what herbs they use and for what and then check them for medical uses.