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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: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday December 21 2016, @11:36PM
It comes from the bark of a south american tree. Unfortunately malaria has evolved to be resistant to quinine.
Aspirin originally came from willow bark. I read in wikipedia that - quite tragically - it was preferred to quinine because it reduced the fever too but was far cheaper than quinine.
Aspirin doesn't actually cure malaria, but quinine, at least at one time did.
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