Researcher says new cure for TB only years away

A new, more effective treatment for tuberculosis could be developed within five to 10 years, says an Auckland University scientist who has been recognised for his work on the disease.

Dr Shaun Lott has just been named the winner of the Queenstown Molecular Biology Meeting's $5000 Invitrogen Life Science Award for his ground-breaking research into the functioning of the TB bacterium.

Dr Lott's research is focused on the area of structural biology, which seeks to visualise the basic components of life, such as proteins and DNA, with atomic accuracy. This has traditionally been a glacially slow process, but recent technological developments have allowed for the rapid analysis of hundreds of proteins, greatly accelerating research.

His work has revealed the three-dimensional structure of proteins in the TB bacterium, and is the starting point for designing new compounds that will form the basis of future drugs for treating diseases such as TB.

"People think of it as a Third World disease, and it primarily is, but it remains the world's biggest killer."

Recently a 13-year-old in the Manawatu contracted the disease, while 50 students, staff and relatives at Palmerston North Boys High have tested positive for the bacterium.

Dr Lott said the disease is treatable, but treatment involves a drug regime of between six and nine months. Existing treatment targets actively multiplying bacteria, killing about 99 per cent almost immediately, he said.

"But you need another six months of therapy to get rid of that last little 1 per cent."

The remaining bacteria are non-replicating, taking a long time to become active for the drug to take effect.

The focus for treatment now was in finding the weak point for dormant bacteria, he said.

He estimates a treatment, be it a vaccine or drug, is between five and 10 years away. Once the protein structures are solved, the next phase is to find inhibitors that target enzymes important to the bacterium's survival, he said.

* The Queenstown meeting's Promising Researcher Awards went to Dr Lesley Collins of Massey University and Dr Peter Dearden of Otago University.

Dr Collins is working on the underlying ancestral cell biology of modern eukaryotic cells, including animals, fungi, plants and parasites. Her interest is in how ancestral cells have evolved, and how life adapts to environmental and other changes at a genetic level.

Dr Peter Dearden leads the Laboratory for Evolution and Development at the University of Otago. He has been studying genetic control of development of honeybees and comparing that with the well-studied fruit fly.

The aim is to investigate the complex pathways controlling development to understand how differences between these animals have arisen and how they have evolved.