Publication date: Mar 24, 2025
In infected mice, 6 weeks of nanoparticle treatment significantly reduced the amount of M. tuberculosis in the lungs. To get the TB drug clofazimine across the blood-brain barrier, researchers have encapsulated it inside tiny particles and created a nasal spray. To develop a faster method, researchers targeted a protein that the bacterium uses to steal iron ions from its host’s cells. If M. tuberculosis reaches cerebrospinal fluid, the result can be tuberculous meningitis – a life-threatening inflammation around a person’s brain and spinal cord. Currently, testing saliva samples for M. tuberculosis is time-consuming because of the bacterium’s slow growth and resistance to stains used in imaging. A 4-week treatment significantly reduced the bacterial burden within the animals’ brains and lungs compared to untreated mice. A type of white blood cell called a macrophage gets taken over during a tuberculosis infection, becoming an incubator for the pathogen.
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Emailing | Acs |
| Lethal | Bacterium |
| Mycobacterium | Blood |
| Sugar | Infectious |
| Iron | |
| Light | |
| March | |
| Meningitis | |
| Mice | |
| Particles | |
| Tb | |
| Treatment | |
| Tuberculosis | |
| Tuberculous |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | tuberculosis |
| pathway | KEGG | Tuberculosis |
| disease | MESH | causes |
| disease | IDO | bacteria |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Clofazimine |
| disease | MESH | inflammation |
| disease | MESH | tuberculous meningitis |
| disease | MESH | Infectious Diseases |
| disease | IDO | pathogen |
| disease | MESH | infection |
| disease | IDO | cell |
| disease | IDO | blood |
| disease | IDO | host |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Iron |
| disease | IDO | protein |