Scientists have a promising new approach for treating drug-resistant tuberculosis

As reported by Melissa Healy in the Los Angeles Times, researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College recently discovered a potential method for a more successful tuberculosis intervention. By impairing the formation of the TB bacterium’s protective outer layer, a commonly prescribed antibiotic was better able to target and eliminate the bacteria. The implications of this study are particularly exciting as tuberculosis has remained one of the world’s most pervasive infections that is also, in many cases, difficult to treat due to the growing number of antibiotic resistant TB bacteria. This discovery could offer an alternative treatment, or a treatment concomitant with current antibiotics to increase efficacy of intervention.