Mutations that have resisted drugs tuberculosis bacteria, in the light

2013/09/04 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Farmakologia
• Medikuntza
• Mikrobiologia
• Genetika

The journal Nature Genomics has published four articles on the evolution of tuberculosis bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis). These works are the results of international research groups, and in three of them researchers have focused on mutations that resist tuberculosis bacteria. This is what currently causes the biggest problems in the fight against tuberculosis. Article 4 has followed the origin and spread of tuberculosis bacteria.

Researchers, in addition to identifying current strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, have compared each other and investigated the appearance of drug-resistant mutations. This has allowed finding new genes related to resistance, which opens up new ways to find better treatments.

In fact, many of the genes related to resistance affect the cell wall, for example, by altering the structure or permeability. As a result of this change, medicines lose effectiveness. Other genes, on the other hand, speed up mutations or act on resistant genes, increasing or decreasing their activity. However, researchers recognize that they still do not know what is the function of half of the genes identified.

On the other hand, the article on the origin and extent of tuberculosis bacteria explains that bacteria and humans have been evolving together for more than 70,000 years. Precisely, they have shown that before leaving Africa the bacteria infected man and have concluded that the bacteria have evolved to be more deadly: for the bacteria to expand, the disease must be developed and it seems that the bacteria have opted to reduce the latency time to accelerate its expansion. However, it usually takes years since the person gets infected until he develops it.