Every year March 24 marks World Tuberculosis (TB) Day and this year the theme is ‘Invest to End TB. Save lives’. In this blog, Professor Sanjib Bhakta, Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Biochemistry, discusses the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on TB, why this is so alarming, and how research at the Mycobacteria Research Laboratory of the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology (ISMB) at Birkbeck is making a difference.
Professor Sanjib Bhakta’s research group at the World Tuberculosis Day Keynote lecture at the Infectious Diseases conference
World Tuberculosis (TB) Day is a significant and meaningful day to highlight public awareness of TB around the world. TB is typically a respiratory infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The causal bacterial pathogens are spread via droplets and primarily infect the lungs. However, TB can infect any part of the body and can cause infection that spreads throughout the systems of the body.
More than a quarter of the global population (approximately 2 billion) are infected with M. tuberculosis, with approximately 10% regularly developing into active TB, increased by risk factors such as HIV, smoking, diabetes and malnutrition. It is estimated that by 2050, drug resistant TB will be responsible for 2.6 million deaths a year.
COVID-19 has greatly impacted the available services, treatment and diagnosis of TB, disrupting ongoing progress towards combating the disease1. Co-infection of COVID-19 and TB resulting in more severe disease and higher death rates have been reported among this population. Improved preventative measures, such as vaccines, rapid diagnosis and new drugs are in dire need to bring this pathogen under control.
In order to tackle this forgotten pandemic effectively, strong global interdisciplinary partnerships, community engagement and antimicrobial stewardship are crucial. We, at Mycobacteria Research Laboratory, have participated in many key multi-centred research activities and public engagements in an effort to highlight community awareness on TB and antibiotic resistance. These include:
- As active members of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, we have played roles as “Antibiotic Action Champion” and/or “Antibiotic Guardian”
- We have partnered with the “Joi Hok” charity in Kolkata, India to reach out to local and global school children on various science and art based public engagement projects to raise public awareness on TB and anti-microbial resistance (AMR) in TB and the project won the Microbiology Society Outreach Prize in 2020.
- We aim to validate new therapeutic targets for new anti-TB drug design3. In addition, our research has identified the prospect of repurposing non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to reverse the AMR in TB4.
- Recently, we have received a Birkbeck-Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF) Translational Research Award to fund our investigation on repurposing NSAIDs to tackle TB. In our research group World TB Day public awareness poster this year and World TB Day Keynote lecture at the Infectious Diseases conference (23 and 24 March 2022) in London, we will be highlighting our interdisciplinary approaches to tackle antimicrobial resistance in TB.
Our international biotechnology partner, Dr Parvinder Kaur, Principal Scientist of the Foundation for Neglected Disease Research, said: “FNDR, India, is a not-for-profit biotech organization working to discover and develop novel drugs for various infectious diseases that have a high socio-economic impact. FNDR’s clinical drug candidate, TBA-7371, is currently undergoing Phase-2 clinical trial focusing on drug-resistant TB. Our collaborative efforts with Professor Bhakta’s Mycobacteria Research Laboratory at the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology include TB drug development support and knowledge exchange to facilitate translational aspects of TB research.”
Key References: [1] WHO, Tuberculosis deaths rise for the first time in more than a decade due to the COVID-19 pandemic, (2021) [2] Microbiology Society, Members Sreyashi Basu and Sanjib Bhakta win the 2020 Microbiology Outreach Prize (2020) [3] Maitra, A., et al., FEMS Microbiology Reviews, 43 (5) 548–575 (2019) [4] Maitra, A et al., Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 75 (11) 3194–3201 (2020)
Further information
