Kathmandu: Microbial geneticist Gyanu Lamichhane of the John Hopkins Center for Tuberculosis Research at John Hopkins University (JHU) is among 49 recipients of the New Innovator Award that is awarded by National Institute of Health (NIH) of the US Department of Health and Human Services, according to a statement by NIH.

The award is given to promising scientists in the early stages of their careers and is supported directly with $1.5 million in research funding over five years.

Lamichhane's discovery offers a potential to shorten the treatment of tuberculosis.

He discovered the key role of an enzyme L,D-transpeptidase in forming chemical linkages inside the protective cell wall in Myobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium responsible for TB diseases.

His recent research shows that when the enzyme is unable to function, especially in chronic infections when the enzyme is more active, the TB bacterium loses virulence and the bacterial cell wall weakens. This in turn exposes other chemical linkages holding the cell wall together, linkages that are known targets of widely prescribed drugs such as amoxicillin.

As part of his new project, Lamichhane plans to investigate chemicals that interfere with L,D-transpeptidase activity and whether these compounds, when used in combination with antibiotics, hasten the treatment of chronic TB or other kinds of bacterial infection.

“As a whole new class of drugs, L,D-transpeptidase inhibitor, plus antibiotics, could potentially shorten TB treatment, which not takes a minimum of six months, and it could offer new treatment options to people who have developed drug resistance,” said Lamichhane, in the JHU gazette.

source:republica,2 Oct 2011