Researchers have deciphered how the human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis is able to tolerate the recently approved FDA drug bedaquiline. The rise in multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extremely drug resistant (XDR) strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) is becoming a major cause of global health concern for treating tuberculosis, which affects a third of the global population. In fact, the number of worldwide deaths caused by tuberculosis has surpassed HIV/AIDS, and there is greater sense of urgency than ever before to find effective drug cocktails to outsmart MTB. In a landmark study, researchers demonstrated a systems biology approach that has the potential to rationally predict combinations of drugs that will disrupt tolerance networks in MTB, making it even most susceptible to antibiotic therapy.
