Old Parkinson’s drugs offer new hope for the treatment of tuberculosis

A drug developed in the 1950s to treat Parkinson’s disease can offer a new powerful tool in the fight against tuberculosis (TB). Meanwhile, according to new research from the University of British Columbia.

Published in NPJ antimicrobials. Consequently, resistanceThe study revealed that benztropin, a drug used to manage tremors in Parkinson patients, can considerably reduce the levels of causing tuberculosis bacteria by stimulating the body’s natural immune response.

Tuberculosis is the deadliest infectious disease in the world, generally affecting the lungs and causing approximately 1.3 million dead each year. However, Treatment requires a diet of several months of multiple antibiotics. Moreover, which can have serious side effects and is increasingly questioned by the emergence of drug -resistant bacterial strains.

New approaches for the treatment of tuberculosis are urgently necessary. Consequently, By old parkinson’s drugs offer new improving immune function rather than targeting bacteria, this could be a powerful tool against drug -resistant tuberculosis. Furthermore, And, it is a compound that has already proven to be safe in people with Parkinson. Moreover, “”

Dr Yossef AV-Gay, principal author, professor of infectious diseases, UBC Faculty of Medicine

Tuberculosis is particularly difficult to treat because responsible bacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosisis capable of infecting and surviving in very immune cells designed to destroy pathogens, called macrophages.

While antibiotics operate by directly killing bacteria, benztropin works through an alternative approach that oversees immune cells to retaliate. The drug blocks a receiver on macrophages that TB bacteria exploit. allowing cells to regain their ability to kill bacterial invaders.

Researchers say that treatments that improve the body’s natural defenses. known as therapies led by the host, could offer significant advantages in the fight against tuberculosis.

“Because these therapies old parkinson’s drugs offer new do not directly target bacteria. they are much less likely to stimulate resistance to drugs,” said the main author, Dr. Henok Sahile, a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Medicine of the UBC. “They can also work in combination with existing antibiotics to improve treatment results or help in cases where antibiotics fail. »»

To identify benztropine. the research team has detected a library of more than 240 drugs approved by Food and Drug Administration in the United States by testing each compound on immune cells infected with tuberculosis.

Benztropine has become an out -of -competition candidate. capable of considerably reducing the bacterial counts of TB in experiments with human and mouse immune cells. The researchers then tested benztropin in mice infected with tuberculosis. with oral treatment leading to a 70% reduction in bacterial load in the lungs equivalent to certain current TB treatments.

The drug has shown similar efficiency old parkinson’s drugs offer new in a model of separate mouse of Salmonella Infection. suggesting its potential as a treatment for a wide range of pathogens.

Because benztropin is already approved for use in humans. researchers say that the results could accelerate its path to clinical tests for tuberculosis and other infections.

“The reuse of existing drugs is one of the fastest. most profitable means to provide new treatments to patients,” said Dr. Av-Gay. “With benztropine. we already understand the safety profile and pharmacology, which means that we can move more quickly to clinical trials. »»

The interdisciplinary research team involved microbiologists. immunologists and infectious disease experts from the Life Sciences Institute of UBC, as well as collaborators of the organization of vaccines and infectious diseases of the University of Saskatchewan.

This study was supported by Canadian Health Research Institutes.