India decodes TB bacteria, paves way for new drug

[Choppers]

India decodes TB bacteria, paves way for new drug​

IANS, Apr 11, 2010, 06.41pm IST

NEW DELHI: Indian scientists have mapped the Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome, a first of its kind achievement that gives hope of discovering a cost effective drug for the disease that kills at least 330,000 Indians every year.

"Our scientists along with over 100 science students from several universities have done this within a few months. We hope within 18-24 months we will be able to take one molecule to the clinical trial stage," Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) chief Samir Bramhachari said.

"I am too excited. What we have not done so far has been achieved. I thank all those students who have helped it become a reality. We are doing this through open source drug discovery (OSDD) and anyone across the world is free to join the effort," Bramhachari said.

Scientists said that though 1.7 million people die of TB every year globally, there has not been any new drug discovery for last the four to five decades.

"OSDD is a completely new formula across the world. Here we are making all our progress available to public. Anyone can take advantage and develop a drug based on our research. The aim here is not patents but drug discovery for a neglected disease," said Rajesh Gokhle, a senior scientist associated with the project.

India decodes TB bacteria, paves way for new drug - The Times of India

 

[Philosopher1]

I is for India and Innovation.

 

[Prometheus]

well, current chemothreapy course for TB is lenghty and having many adverse effects.

hopefully new drug will over come it....................old one is getting resistant

 

[Kinetic]

Bravo. With appropriate govt and private support we should start human genome project.

 

[PakistaniPhysco]

Let's hope it works.TB is too deadly disease.3 of my family members have suffered for it and had to take medicines for over 12 months.I've been tested thrice for TB but thankfully results can back negative all the time.

 

[qsaark]

The complete genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (the TB causing bacterium) was decoded in 1998 by the researchers in the Sanger Centre, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK and published in world renowned journal nature:

Deciphering the biology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from the complete genome sequence.

Cole ST, Brosch R, Parkhill J, Garnier T, Churcher C, Harris D, Gordon SV, Eiglmeier K, Gas S, Barry CE, Tekaia F, Badcock K, Basham D, Brown D, Chillingworth T, Connor R, Davies R, Devlin K, Feltwell T, Gentles S, Hamlin N, Holroyd S, Hornsby T, Jagels K, Krogh A, McLean J, Moule S, Murphy L, Oliver K, Osborne J, Quail MA, Rajandream MA, Rogers J, Rutter S, Seeger K, Skelton J, Squares R, Squares S, Sulston JE, Taylor K, Whitehead S, Barrell BG

Nature. 1998;393;537-44. PMID: 9634230 DOI: 10.1038/31159

The genome was re-annotated in 2002 by the same group:

Re-annotation of the genome sequence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv.

Camus JC, Pryor MJ, Médigue C, Cole ST
Microbiology. 2002;148;2967-73. PMID: 12368430

Source: M.tuberculosis

Sorry to bust the bubble... I am a Molecular Microbiologist and working in this field for past 9 years.

 

[qsaark]

Bravo. With appropriate govt and private support we should start human genome project.

Already completed in 2003.

Source: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/home.shtml

 

[Mallu]

The complete genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (the TB causing bacterium) was decoded in 1998 by the researchers in the Sanger Centre, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK and published in world renowned journal nature:

Deciphering the biology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from the complete genome sequence.

Cole ST, Brosch R, Parkhill J, Garnier T, Churcher C, Harris D, Gordon SV, Eiglmeier K, Gas S, Barry CE, Tekaia F, Badcock K, Basham D, Brown D, Chillingworth T, Connor R, Davies R, Devlin K, Feltwell T, Gentles S, Hamlin N, Holroyd S, Hornsby T, Jagels K, Krogh A, McLean J, Moule S, Murphy L, Oliver K, Osborne J, Quail MA, Rajandream MA, Rogers J, Rutter S, Seeger K, Skelton J, Squares R, Squares S, Sulston JE, Taylor K, Whitehead S, Barrell BG

Nature. 1998;393;537-44. PMID: 9634230 DOI: 10.1038/31159

The genome was re-annotated in 2002 by the same group:

Re-annotation of the genome sequence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv.

Camus JC, Pryor MJ, Médigue C, Cole ST
Microbiology. 2002;148;2967-73. PMID: 12368430

Source: M.tuberculosis

Sorry to bust the bubble... I am a Molecular Microbiologist and working in this field for past 9 years.

Dear Friend,

Good to hear you are a microbiologist. Have you read the paper in which you have said Mapping to be done in 1998.
That is for characterized strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, H37Rv,

what about other strains

when you break the bubble break it entirely
so you mean to say CSIR is foolish
They Have Mapped strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis obtained from Clinical Samples of Indian Patients
So this studies in general will help this Subcontinent
Not for US

 

[qsaark]

Dear Friend,

Good to hear you are a microbiologist. Have you read the paper in which you have said Mapping to be done in 1998.
That is for characterized strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, H37Rv,

what about other strains

when you break the bubble break it entirely
so you mean to say CSIR of foolish

Do not try to tell me about strains. Heard of the 'species'? What makes you and me human? and what makes you and me different from a TB bacterium? And are your and mine genes different? some tiny differences here and there called SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) yes, but 99.999% you and me have the same genes hence we are who we are.

So when you say "India decodes TB bacteria, paves way for new drug" you are misleading the public because its already done. Most you can claim is "India decodes TB bacterium strain xyz". Since the complete genome sequence is already revealed, its much simpler to decode other strains as the foot print of DNA sequence is already at hand based on which gene specific primers can be designed without going through tedious primer-walking, library formation, the stuff that makes the decoding of genome of a new species novel and worth publishing in journals like Nature or Science.

 

[rubyjackass]

Very used to this qsaark.

Hopeless

 

[Gin ka Pakistan]

good use of money , good news

 

[Mallu]

@qsaark

The world media reporting this NEWS are foolish

If its so easy then why didnt you invent drug for the New drug-resistant TB strains
May be this would have helped your country and the Subcontinent

Why is world so concerned about New drug-resistant TB strains
Read the link below in world Press in 2009 reported from the country you are serving now
Worldpress.org - World Press Wire
New drug-resistant TB strains may become widespread, warn researchers
August 11th, 2009 - 2:42 pm ICT by ANI -
Washington, August 11 (ANI): Australian researchers from the University of New South Wales and the University of Western Sydney have warned that new strains of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) may become widespread.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers say that their finding raises concern that even though TB incidence is falling in many regions, the emergence of antibiotic resistance could see virtually untreatable strains of the disease become widespread.

Considering that lab-based studies have suggested that antibiotic-resistant TB strains cause longer-lasting infections, but with a lower transmission rate, the researchers questioned whether drug-resistant TB strains are more likely than drug-sensitive strains to persist and spread - an important question for predicting the future impact of the disease.

Led by UNSW’s Dr. Mark Tanaka, the research team used epidemiological and molecular data from Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated from Cuba, Estonia and Venezuela to estimate the rate of evolution of drug resistance, and to compare the relative “reproductive fitness” of resistant and drug-sensitive strains.

“We found that the overall fitness of drug-resistant strains is comparable to drug-sensitive strains. This was especially so in Cuba and Estonia, where the there is a high prevalence of drug-resistant cases,” says Dr. Tanaka of the Evolution and Ecology Research Centre.

The finding may reflect an inconsistency in drug treatment programs in these countries. Indeed, Estonia now has one of the highest rates of multi-drug resistance in the world.

According to the researchers, the intermittent presence of drugs and the resulting transmission of resistant strains would have let drug-resistant strains collectively spend more time within untreated hosts, allowing them to evolve ways to become more infectious and out-compete the drug-sensitive strains.

The researchers have also found that the contribution of transmission to the spread of drug resistance is very high - up to 99 per cent - compared with acquired resistance due to treatment failure.

“Our results imply that drug resistant strains of TB are likely to become highly prevalent in the next few decades. They also suggest that limiting further transmission of TB might be an effective approach to reducing the impact of drug resistance,” says UNSW’s Dr. Fabio Luciani, the study’s lead author.

Research co-author, Dr. Andrew Francis from the University of Western Sydney, adds: “Mathematical and statistical methods can add a lot of value to empirical data by allowing us to account for the processes behind them. In this case, we use samples of TB genotypes, together with information about drug resistance, to make inferences and predictions that wouldn’t have been possible just a few years ago.” (ANI)

 

[Mallu]

@qsaark

Read the link given below carefully
CSIR to unveil gene map for TB on portal developed by Infosys - Technology - livemint.com

 

[below_freezing]

Do not try to tell me about strains. Heard of the 'species'? What makes you and me human? and what makes you and me different from a TB bacterium? And are your and mine genes different? some tiny differences here and there called SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) yes, but 99.999% you and me have the same genes hence we are who we are.

So when you say "India decodes TB bacteria, paves way for new drug" you are misleading the public because its already done. Most you can claim is "India decodes TB bacterium strain xyz". Since the complete genome sequence is already revealed, its much simpler to decode other strains as the foot print of DNA sequence is already at hand based on which gene specific primers can be designed without going through tedious primer-walking, library formation, the stuff that makes the decoding of genome of a new species novel and worth publishing in journals like Nature or Science.

Agreed, the title is misleading, TB has been sequenced years ago. I think what the article is trying to say is, TB's genomic map has been written by Indian scientists, as in, the genes present on the chromosome have been identified.

 

[ironman]

I think the problem is with the title of TOI.. Here is the Hindu report.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome mapping released ​

Aarti Dhar

Findings may result in development of urgently needed new TB drugs

The OSDD will share its work with any research institution involved in TB research

Researchers, students used online tools to provide insights into 4000 genes of the pathogen

NEW DELHI: The government's Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) initiative released the results of its ‘Connect 2 Decode' (C2D) project to re-annotate the biological and genetic information relating to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis ( Mtb) genome, at a conference here on Sunday.

This is the first time that a comprehensive mapping of the Mtb genome has been compiled, verified and made publicly available. C2D's findings may contain critical data to unlock previously undiscovered details of tuberculosis (TB); resulting in development opportunities for urgently needed new TB drugs in India and other developing countries.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 1.7 million people die annually from TB and that in some parts of the world, one in four people with TB has a form of the disease that can no longer be treated with standard drugs regimens. Despite this public health emergency, TB research funding, particularly for new drugs, remains alarmingly inadequate.

In addition, conventional market-based patent incentives are ineffective in addressing the public health needs in developing countries, with only 1 per cent of the newly developed drugs targeting neglected diseases.

“We need to have a balanced view between health as a right and health as a business. It is because there has been imbalance in this view that diseases like TB, with high mortality but low profitability, are neglected by the current system of pharmaceutical research,” said Dr. Samir K. Brahmachari, scientist and Director-General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

“As virtually no new TB drugs have been developed since the 1960s, the OSDD's model in particular holds great promise for the scientific community by stimulating the development of better drugs and diagnostics for patients,” he said.

With children and people living with HIV in India and other developing countries bearing the greatest burden of the disease, as well as the emergence and spread of TB that was resistant to treatment by the standard anti-TB drugs, there was an urgent global, but unanswered, need for new drugs.

Ironic

“For us, the irony is that with the availability of drugs for HIV and particularly of safe and affordable Indian generics, we are living with HIV but dying of TB,” Loon Gangte of the Delhi Network of Positive People, a support group for people living with HIV/AIDS, said.

“TB research has yet to see any great progress as we struggle to pull ourselves out of a system that places profits before people's lives. India's OSDD project holds immense hope for my community.”

Under the C2D project, researchers and students pooled their time and skills using online tools to provide insights into 4000 genes of the deadly pathogen. The researchers also mapped the genes as they relate to functional interactions and pathways. Their work is held in a shared database, which the OSDD will share through a globally accessible database with any research institutions involved in TB research, through its open portal.

Equal collaboration

C2D demonstrates the power of people to connect through the internet, particular young people, and accomplish complex research tasks. It is also a distinct move from a hierarchical based model of doing science towards one of equal collaboration.

The OSDD was launched in September 2008 by the CSIR. It is a $35 million (Rs. 146 crore) collaborative research effort that focuses primarily on TB. Its objective is to accelerate R&D for TB drugs. With a global community of nearly 3,000 members from 74 countries, the OSDD brings together scientists, doctors, students, policy experts, software professionals and others to work on TB research.

It is the first project of its kind by any government.

The Hindu : Front Page : Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome mapping released