Tuberculosis research: promising new active agent
The effectiveness of the new antibiotic has been demonstrated by researchers at LMU University Hospital, among others, within the framework of a partnership with the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF)
Electron micrograph of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis is the most common infectious disease worldwide. In 2022 alone, there were 10.6 million new infections and 1.3 million deaths. The European-African network PanACEA—a consortium of tuberculosis researchers from five European and eleven African institutions—has carried out a study which reveals the promise of a novel antibiotic and published the results in the medical journal The Lancet Microbe. Co-developed by the Institute of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at LMU and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF), the active agent BTZ-043 could play a key role in the global fight against tuberculosis.
“We urgently need an effective new drug to fight tuberculosis, especially in view of the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant strains,” says scientific program manager Dr Julia Dreisbach, who, together with DZIF-scientist Prof. Michael Hoelscher, Director of the Institute of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at LMU, is leading the development of new drugs against the dangerous disease. The researchers investigated the safety and tolerability of BTZ-043 in 77 adults with newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis in Cape Town, South Africa. “The study demonstrates the antibacterial efficacy and tolerability of BTZ-043 and shows that it can be administered in combination with other tuberculosis drugs,” summarizes DZIF-scientist Dr Norbert Heinrich, senior physician and scientific lead tuberculosis. Discovered by researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology—Hans Knöll Institute (Leibniz-HKI) in Jena and developed in a collaboration between LMU University Hospital, Leibniz-HKI and DZIF, the active agent suppresses an enzyme that tuberculosis pathogens need to build their cell walls, causing them to disintegrate and die.
PanACEA is one of the first adaptive model-based dose-finding studies for a tuberculosis drug and the first of its kind to be carried out in Africa. “The innovative design of the study, including evaluations of the food effects and the interactions between drugs, allows us to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the optimal administration of BTZ-043,” says Heinrich.
This study is part of the EDCTP2 program (grant TRIA2015–1102) and funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research (01KA1701); German Center for Infection Research (DZIF); InfectControl (03ZZ0803A, 03ZZ0835A, and 03ZZ0826A); Bavarian Ministry for Science and the Arts; Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation; and Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek.
