Researchers at Kakatiya University's College of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Warangal, Telangana, have reported a potential new weapon to fight tuberculosis (TB).
They have isolated from soil a bacterial strain of Streptomyces luridus , which shows antibiotic activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis as efficiently as rifampicin, a first line drug against TB1.
The scientists studied the active compound isolated from the extract of S. luridus for its anti-tubercular activity on a multi drug-resistant M. tuberculosis strain isolated from the sputum of a patient. The study showed that this compound was effective as an anti-tubercular agent at a concentration of 64 mg/mL and was comparable in efficacy to rifampicin.
The researchers found it to be non-mutagenic at the concentration of 1000 mg/mL as aslso non- cytotoxic. The antibiotic may be used in future to treat drug-resistant cases as an alternative to rifampicin, they say.
