Anti-malaria drugs effective in fighting pulmonary disease: Study

Treatment of M. abscessus is especially challenging because a minimum of three to four antibiotics are needed in combination, and there are few available options.

Washington: Drugs used to treat malaria are also effective at treating a pulmonary disease similar to tuberculosis, according to a study conducted by a team of researchers from Colorado University. The research was published in the journal, ‘Science of Translational Medicine’.

The study was a significant development in the fight against infections caused by non-tuberculous mycobacteria, or NTM, which are now more common than tuberculosis in the United States and often attack people who have a weakened immune system or pre-existing conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or cystic fibrosis.

"There are currently very few antibiotics available to treat NTM infections, and some patients fail to respond to any treatment," said Professor Mary Jackson of CSU’s Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, one of the lead authors.

"The perspective that anti-malarial drugs that already have undergone advanced clinical trials may become part of the arsenal of drugs available to fight these infections could have an immediate impact in the clinic," she added.

Few drugs are effective against this mycobacterium, and the ones that tend to be toxic and cause bad side effects, Jackson said. The researchers have believed that the bacterium is capable of sensing and responding to threats in its environment, such as lowered oxygen levels, oxidative stress and acidic pH, which are our body's natural ways of fighting disease. It does so by activating, among other things, a regulator known as DosRS which controls many essential functions in the bacterium such as its respiration, ability to form biofilms and ability to enter a dormant state when the conditions are not favourable to bacterial multiplication.