NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, January 2, 2015

Scientists have discovered that a drug for treating diabetes – Metformin (MET) – can also be used to boost the efficacy of TB medication without inducing drug resistance.

The discovery was made by a team of international scientists led by the Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), a research institute under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore.

Conventional drugs used to treat TB usually adopt a pathogen-targeted strategy which attacks and kills bacteria directly. This approach has caused Mtb strains to acquire drug resistance, making existing treatments become increasingly ineffective and resulting in a pressing need to design new therapeutic strategies for the disease.