A surprising discovery may hold promise for treating the world-wide scourge of tuberculosis. TB affects nearly 9 million people and drug-resistant strains are becoming a public health nightmare. That’s because TB can be spread so easily, especially in places where effective medications are hard to come by.
Researchers investigating the mechanism of TB drug resistance unexpectedly found that vitamin C killed these bacteria in the test tube. At first, the researchers thought that vitamin C was enhancing the killing power of the tuberculosis drug insoniazid. But further study showed that this common and inexpensive vitamin was reacting with iron to form oxygen free radicals that zapped a variety of resistant TB strains. The investigators don’t know if vitamin C will work in people with tuberculosis, but this preliminary research provides a reason to follow up with a clinical trial.
