South City News: Boffins Get Pounds 1.25m to Fight Against TB

By Alison Dayani

BIRMINGHAM scientists have been awarded pounds 1.25 million to develop better treatment of one of the city’s most prolific diseases.

Researchers at Birmingham University in Selly Oak will use the money to combat tuberculosis which has soared in the region over the past few years.

Prof Gurydal Besra, from the University’s Physiology department, said the Wellcome Trust cash will go towards investigating ways to infiltrate the tough cell wall, which makes the TB bacteria so difficult to treat.

Tuberculosis is a unique bacteria because it has a thick cell wall made up of four large macromolecules.

But the Birmingham team would be looking at ways to tackle enzymes that control the development of the cell wall, which will make the bacteria more vulnerable to drug therapy.

"One of the difficulties of treatment for TB is that patients often need to take up to six different drugs over a period of nine months to completely eradicate the disease," said Prof Besra.

"This is extremely expensive and also means that many patients don’t complete their course of treatment. This in turn leads to the development of more drug resistant strains of TB.

"If we could target the bacteria more effectively, it would reduce the length of treatment a patient needs and possibly also reduce the problems caused by resistant strains."

There were 69 cases of TB across the West Midlands between February 2 and February 23 – 45 of them in Birmingham and the Black Country.

During February, the Health Protection Agency alerted health chiefs of the raised levels in Sandwell and Birmingham.

(c) 2007 Evening Mail; Birmingham (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.