Promising protein discovered for new drugs against tuberculosis

     

What is Tuberculosis? Short answer, a bacterial disease that effects the lungs. Now we hear of cases all the time about TB outbreaks or even just mild TB cases but we have not been able to find a way to prevent these cases/outbreaks… until now, hopefully? Leiden biologist Annemarie Meijer and her colleagues discovered a protein which triggers the process that the immune cells use to keep tuberculosis under control by breaking them down. This protein is DRAM1 and is hopefully the potential target towards new drugs. It was recently discovered that immune cells can destroy bacteria by what is essentially eating them. Which they do when there is a risk of a bacterial outbreak. In the study they infected zebra fish embryos with TB and DRAM1 and noticed that the DRAM1stimulates the process by which macrophages ‘eat’ the bacteria. Proving that DRAM1 will hopefully be used to prevent TB cases/outbreaks.  

 

Zebra fish.

Credit: Image courtesy of Leiden, Universiteit

Cite:

Leiden, Universiteit. "Promising protein discovered for new drugs against tuberculosis." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 11 June 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140611131745.htm>.