Aspirin Wards Off Drug-resistant Tuberculosis

Aspirin could help to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis, an expensive global killer infection, according to a new study.

Aspirin could be the new target for treating drug-resistant tuberculosis, as tuberculosis bacterium was found to hijack platelets from the blood clotting system to weaken body's immune system, according to the research led by the Centenary Institute //in Sydney.//

Tuberculosis is far from eradicated around the world and still infects more than 1,400 people per year in Australia. Antibiotic resistant tuberculosis is particularly deadly and expensive to treat, costing up to $250,000 to treat a single case in Australia. Scientists at the Centenary Institute have been working on new ways to treat tuberculosis by increasing the effectiveness of the immune system.

Aspirin to Lower Risk of Stroke in Women With History of Preeclampsia
Aspirin , the commonly used painkiller could reduce the risk of stroke in pregnant women having preeclampsia and high risk of cardiovascular disorders.

‘Platelets could worsen tuberculosis, opening the possibility of using anti-platelet drugs like aspirin to help the immune system fight off drug resistant TB.’
Read More..

Using the zebrafish model of tuberculosis, the researchers used fluorescent microscopy to observe the build-up of clots and activation of platelets around sites of infection. Senior author and head of the Centenary's Immune-Vascular Interactions laboratory, Dr Stefan Oehlers, says "the zebrafish gives us literal insight into disease processes by watching cells interacting in real time".

Following their hunch that these platelets were being tricked by the infection into getting in the way of the body's immune system, the researchers treated infections with anti-platelet drugs, including widely available aspirin, and were able to prevent hijacking and allow the body to control infection better.

Dr Elinor Hortle, lead author of the paper published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, and Research Officer in Centenary's Immune-Vascular Interactions laboratory says "This is the first time that platelets have been found to worsen tuberculosis in an animal model. It opens up the possibility that anti-platelet drugs could be used to help the immune system fight off drug resistant TB".

There are over 1.2 million Australians living with latent tuberculosis, a non-infectious form of TB that puts them at risk of developing the active disease. "Our study provides more crucial evidence that widely available aspirin could be used to treat patients with severe tuberculosis infection and save lives," says Dr Hortle.

Source-Eurekalert