UCLA-led research reveals potential treatments for deadly tropical disease

Melioidosis is a tropical disease that claims an estimated 90,000 lives worldwide each year. There is no vaccine, and current treatments are hampered by the ability of the bacterium that causes the disease to resist even the strongest antibiotics.Hardy and lethal, that bacterium, Burkholderia pseudomallei, is classified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a potential bioweapon.UCLA-led research has identified two compounds that, based on tests on human cells and on mice, show potential for treating melioidosis. One is a widely used drug already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as an antifungal treatment; the other is a new synthetic antibiotic. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, represent progress against a disease about which little is known.“Even among neglected tropical diseases, melioidosis is one of the most neglected, especially when you consider its global burden and lethality,” said senior author Jeff F. Miller, UCLA’s Fred Kavli Professor of NanoSystems Sciences, a professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular geneti cs, and director of theCalifornia NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. “It deserves more attention because of its fascinating biology as well.”Breakthrough in the Search for Biothreat Therapeutics fromThe French Lab onVimeo.Seen most often in southeast Asia and northern Australia, melioidosis can take many forms, ranging from a lethal bloodstream infection to a chron...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news