It is never a good time to come down with tuberculosis, but in recent years the outlook has become worse.ย Resistant strains of tuberculosisย are on the rise.
Now, two teams of scientists have published large catalogues of the mutations that confer resistance onย M. tuberculosisย after sequencing the complete genomes of hundreds of samples. Their studiesย greatly increase our understanding of the ways in which this long-term nemesis evades our most potent drugs. Additionally, physicians can use theย more complete list of resistance mutations to avoid giving patients drugs that will not help them, while quickly prescribing more appropriate treatments.
Read the full, original story here:ย Genomes reveal roots of TB drug resistance
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Additional Resources:
- “TB genomes yield insights on drug resistance,” SciDev.Net
This article includes the results of an additional study, not published in Nature Genetics (and not included in their article). This study, by researchers at the Center for Public Health Research in Valencia, Spain, “looks at how the bacterium accompanied ancient human migration out of Africa and multiplied with increases in human population densities.” - “How TB evolves to get the better of humans,” Medical News Today
Another recent study, conducted byย researchersย at Stanford University and published in PLoS, describedย how the tuberculosis bacterium uses natural selection to adapt and perfect itself.
