Project Lead(s): Santiago Ramón-García
Issue
Hundreds of antibiotics are on the market, but only a few are effective to treat tuberculosis and development of new drugs is a long and expensive process. An alternative approach to generate new TB treatment options in a timely and cost-effective manner is “repurposing”, i.e., identifying new applications for existing, clinically approved drugs with known pharmaceutical properties.
Solution
The laboratory-based project explored whether avermectin drugs, typically used for other diseases, could be effective in treating tuberculosis.
Survival kinetic experiments were done in vitro for ivermectin, selamectin, and moxidectin to measure kill kinetics.
Outcome
Results showed that members of the avermectin family are bactericidal against mycobacterial species, including multi-drug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant clinical strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Selamectin showed the strongest bactericidal profile.
Results were published in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
More than $155,800 was received in grants from the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the British Columbia Lung Association.
Impact and Results
- Scientific Reports: Repurposing clinically approved cephalosporins for tuberculosis therapy (28/09/2016)
- University of British Columbia: Antibiotics developed in 1960s show promise for TB therapy (28/09/2016)