A New Potential Weapon against TB

A team of researchers from University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, Texas A&M University, and University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada has discovered a unique copper-repressing protein in the bacterium that causes tuberculosis in humans. This finding could pave the way for new strategies to halt tuberculosis infection.

When TB bugs invade, host immune cells dump excessive amounts of copper onto the invaders in an effort to kill them. Though all cells need copper, but too much of it causes cell death. But the present study has found that the TB bugs fight back by generating a copper-repressing protein. This helps the TB bugs block excess copper in host’s body. With this discovery, we can now pursue ways to deactivate the repressor protein leading to novel antidote to tuberculosis infection, say the researchers in a paper that will appear in January 2007 issue of Nature Chemical Biology.