LKT Labs

Biochemicals for Life Science Research

Home | Linezolid

Linezolid

Promising Mycobacteria Treatment: Bedaquiline

Bedaquiline, a potential treatment for several kinds of mycobacteria, was the first new drug to be approved for the treatment of tuberculosis in forty years back in 2012. This drug is especially important for the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis when first line treatments fail. It works by preventing the mycobacterium from making ATP, which is a different mechanism from older treatments.

Bedaquiline has attracted interest from public health researchers for the treatment of non-tuberculous mycobacteria. These bacteria infect lungs and wounds, especially in immunocompromised patients. In rich countries, non-tuberculous mycobacterial infections cause a greater health burden than tuberculosis itself does. These infections are difficult to treat because, as with tuberculosis, no effective drugs have been developed recently.

Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center have begun investigating the potential for developing a new treatment for this type of infection using bedaquiline. To begin, they first collected isolates of non-tuberculous mycobacteria from lungs and wounds of infected patients and grew them in nutrient broth. The isolates were then tested using broth microdilution antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST). They calculated the minimum amount of bedaquiline they needed to add to the broth to inhibit bacterial growth, the minimum inhibitory concentration. They found that the required concentrations should be achievable in patients’ blood, so bedaquiline has potential to treat non-tuberculous mycobacterial infections.

In considering bedaquiline for the treatment of mycobacteria, researchers caution that bedaquiline should not be used as a monotherapy, because of the potential for bacteria to develop resistance.

 

Bedaquiline Fumarate

 

Brown-Elliot BA, Wallace RJ. 2018. In vitro susceptibility testing of bedaquiline against mycobacterium absceccus complex. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. 29:63(2). doi: 10.1128/AAC.01919-18. PMID: 30509936

 

Now that you’ve read about it, find out how to pronounce it too!

 

Chemicals for Pharmaceutical Research for the Novel Coronavirus, COVID-19

The coronavirus known as COVID-19 first appeared in December, 2019 and spread around the world within a matter of days. As of this writing, it has infected nearly 400,000 people in 169 countries.

Scientists around the world have stopped their normal research to focus on creating a vaccine and treatment for this illness which has killed more than 17,000 people worldwide. Fortunately, more than 100,000 have recovered.

On March 22, 2020, an international team of scientists published a research paper preprint on biorXiv analyzing the interaction between the novel coronavirus and human proteins.* Their analysis predicts 332 protein-protein interactions and 69 existing pharmaceuticals that might perturb these interactions. The researchers propose that these drugs may be candidates for treating COVID-19 infections.

 LKT Laboratories has a number of these proposed chemicals for COVID-19 research in stock that can be shipped within 24 hours:

We also have various other antiviral compounds available:

See complete list of available antiviral compounds here

*A SARS-CoV-2-Human Protein-Protein Interaction Map Reveals Drug Targets and Potential Drug-Repurposing, David E. Gordon et al., bioRxiv 2020.03.22.002386; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.22.002386.

LKT Laboratories is a biochemical supply company focused on the synthesis, purification, and isolation of small molecules for research applications. All laboratory activities, including synthesis, natural product isolation, and full analytical characterization of our products are performed at our headquarters in St. Paul, MN.  Call or email us if you have questions about the chemicals above or have a need for other chemicals not listed.