Leprosy

Leprosy the world’s oldest infectious disease?

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Researchers have found two leprosy-causing bacteria from a last common bacterial ancestor around 10 million years ago.

“Leprosy is a strict human disease that stretches back millions of years,” said Professor Han from University of Texas’ MD Anderson Cancer Centre.

He found that two leprosy-causing bacteria, including Mycobacterium leprae, were pinpointed to come from a last common bacterial ancestor around 10 million years ago – meaning that ancient humans suffered from the disease.

Human beings carried the leprosy bacteria when departing Africa around 100,000 years ago to populate the rest of the world, said the study.

“Tracing the ultimate origin of leprosy through the parasitic adaptive evolution of the leprosy bacteria is rather insightful – not only for this single disease but also for our better understanding of the mechanism behind other human infections,” explained Han.

Together with Francisco Silva, of the University of Valencia’s Evolutionary Genetics Unit, Han concluded that leprosy can be viewed as a natural consequence of a long parasitism.

The study was published in the journal PLOS Neglected

Source: Business standard

Vinegar helps fight drug-resistant TB

A new study has found that the active ingredient in vinegar, acetic acid, might be used as an inexpensive and non-toxic disinfectant against drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) bacteria as well as other stubborn, disinfectant-resistant mycobacteria.

“Mycobacteria are known to cause tuberculosis and leprosy, but non-TB mycobacteria are common in the environment, even in tap water, and are resistant to commonly used disinfectants. When they contaminate the sites of surgery or cosmetic procedures, they cause serious infections. Innately resistant to most antibiotics, they require months of therapy and can leave deforming scars,” senior author on the study, Howard Takiff, from Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Investigation (IVIC) in Caracas, said.

While investigating the ability of non-TB mycobacteria to resist disinfectants and antibiotics, Takiff’s postdoctoral fellow, Claudia Cortesia stumbled upon vinegar’s ability to kill mycobacteria.

Testing a drug that needed to be dissolved in acetic acid, Cortesia found that the control, with acetic acid alone, killed the mycobacteria she wanted to study.

It was found that exposure to 6 percent acetic acid, just slightly more concentrated than supermarket vinegar, for 30 minutes, reduced the numbers of TB mycobacteria from around 100 million to undetectable levels.

The study was published in the journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Source: Businesss standard