Clavulanate and Meropenem combination effective in dealing with TB

Biochemistry researchers have combined clavulanate and the antibiotic meropenem, finding that the pair offer an effective treatment for tuberculosis (TB).

John Blanchard, Ph.D., professor of Biochemistry at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York City, said: "We've tested this combination against laboratory strains of Mtb, XDR and MDR strains from patients. In all cases, the combination doesn't just slows down growth — it kills the bacterium in laboratory tests."

The bacterium in TB has started to develop resistances to  current medication, which consists of isoniazid, pyrazinamide, rifampin, and ethambutol. Some strains of TB are resistant to more drugs, which makes this an increasingly pressing issue to deal with, for example, a physician in India reported a strain of TB that it 100 per cent drug resistant.

Combining clavulanate and meropenem kills MDR and XDR strains of Mtb, which contains beta-lactamase. This is what has been killing off antibiotics, and rendering many other drugs ineffective. The new study proved that clavulanate would stop the enzyme in TB microbes from attacking and destroying antibiotics.

Posted by Ben Evans