據(jù)醫(yī)學網(wǎng)站medicalxpress周日報道，哈佛大學醫(yī)學院的科研人員在對耐藥性肺結(jié)核研究中發(fā)現(xiàn)39個新型耐藥性基因,，這將為開發(fā)肺結(jié)核新藥和診療手段提供新的工具,。
此項研究將有助于更好地了解這些基因在肺結(jié)核中所起到的作用。
耐藥性肺結(jié)核是指耐一種或一種以上抗結(jié)核藥物的肺結(jié)核病,。2011年3月21日下午,，衛(wèi)生部公布了全國肺結(jié)核疫情現(xiàn)狀，目前中國結(jié)核病年發(fā)病人數(shù)約為130萬,，位居全球第2位,，僅次于印度。另外我國是全球22個結(jié)核病高負擔國家之一,，耐藥肺結(jié)核病疫情嚴峻,，每年新發(fā)耐多藥肺結(jié)核患者數(shù)約為12萬，廣泛耐藥肺結(jié)核患者9000例,。 （生物谷 Bioon.com）
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Over the last few decades researchers have used the tools of molecular biology to identify a handful of individual mutations that allow TB to withstand many of the key therapeutics that doctors use to treat it. These genetic markers serve as clues for new drug development and as tools for diagnosing drug-resistant strains of TB. But the pace of discovery has proven too slow in the face of the complex array of rapidly mutating bacterial strains.
A new method of analyzing whole genome sequences of TB, applied to a massive set of strains of the bacteria collected from clinics around the world, has revealed 39 new genes associated with elevated drug resistance. The results were published Sept. 1, 2013 in Nature Genetics.
"We have found that more genes might be implicated in resistance than previously thought, and this means that we can start to unravel the role of these genes," said Megan Murray, HMS professor of global health and social medicine. "This is significant because it implicates new mechanisms in the evolution of resistance that can be further studied now and raises the possibility of more specific targets for the detection of resistance through molecular methods."
These new data suggest that acquiring resistance is a multistep process, perhaps requiring low-level resistance mutations prior to the ones that are well known. The findings also suggest that some of these new genes are involved in resistance that may confer "global" resistance traits, helping strains become resistant to a group of antibiotics rather than just one or a single class.
"Several of the genes we identified are related to the bacteria's regulation of cell walls; since many classes of drugs target the cell walls, we speculate that changes to the structure or metabolism of the cell walls might confer resistance to a wide variety of drugs," said first author Maha Farhat, HMS instructor in medicine and assistant physician at Massachusetts General Hospital
