A team of researchers at the University of Witwatersrand is developing a system of TB medicine delivery at nano scale – engineering a microscopic capsule to store all four important drugs needed to fight TB, to be delivered via inhalation therapy, reports Hypertext.
The scientists says that by delivering these drugs directly to the lungs, it will fight TB faster, cut down on side effects and limit changes for the bacteria to become resistant.
The inhalable nanosystem, under development from the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP), will be better at attacking the TB microbacterium exactly where it is hiding in the lungs, they add.
Developed by a postdoctoral researcher at Wits, Dr Lindokuhle Ngema, and the WADDP team, the new “nanocarrier” is a miniature container that can hold all four standard TB drugs at the same time and release them exactly where they are needed.
The system is engineered at molecular level to create a super tiny capsule around the four drugs – essentially, a tiny particle that is non-toxic, and which can be inhaled through a system similar to a nebuliser.
“The beauty of nanoscale science is that you can design a system that responds to the environment inside the body. We can control where and when the drugs are released,” said Ngema.
“TB is clever. It hides in lung pockets where oral drugs can’t reach. Our system is designed to be smarter and to go exactly where it’s needed.”
The standard TB treatment sees the four drugs, rifampicin, isoniazid, ethambutol and pyrazinamide, delivered orally over six months. But this creates side effects like liver damage and nausea, which can cause patients to stop the treatment due to discomfort.
An even worse side effect is that the TB bacteria become gradually resistant to the drugs.
The WADDP team believes that inhalation therapy could provide a breakthrough. By delivering medicine directly into the respiratory tract (from the nose and bronchi to the alveoli), inhaled treatment bypasses the body’s barriers and concentrates the drug where it is needed most.
Despite the technology still being developed, it has the potential to make the treatment of TB far easier for patients in the future.
Hypertext article – South African researchers create nano medicine to fight deadly TB (Open access)
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