Research Team Hopeful In Fight Against TB Thanks to Possible New Weapon reports Plant Group Perennials

(EstateNewsWire.com, April 02, 2013 ) Franklin, CT -- Scientists at the University of new Brunswick have stated early results for potential weapon against tuberculosis is looking promising.

"We've been able to find endophytic fungi from plants here in New Brunswick that can inhibit or kill TB," said John Johnson, a biology professor who works with the team of graduate students at the University of New Brunswick Saint John campus.

The work by the Natural Products Research Group is still within its early phases, according to Johnson, but is optimistic within the early stages.

"If we came up with something tomorrow, it could be 10 years to 15 years before it goes through all the steps, all the development, before you can get it to some kind of a point where you're ready for a clinical trial," he said.

The team is still hopeful that they are on track to finding new antibiotics that could change the way doctors are treating the disease. The fight is an important one as TB still claims over a million lives across the globe each year. It has largely been eradicated in North America, but stays prevalent in other continents. Chris Gray states that the eradication in most of North America has unfortunately been the key to the stall in innovation for the fight against TB.

"Now we're faced with this problem where we have a disease that affects a third of the world and the frontline drugs that we're using are at least 50 years old."

The rise in drug resistant bacteria is a stressor for ways to eradicate the disease for blood. It is no coincidence that researchers are now turning to nature, he stated.

"The length of time that nature has taken to produce these chemicals, we just can't reproduce that in the lab."

Kathryn Melvin, who is a graduate student working with the team explained item that has the team so hopeful. "This compound in the plant has already shown it has antimicrobacterial activity and we're looking to see if it's higher in different amounts in different tissues," she said.

About Plant Group Perennials:

Plant Group Perennials (http://www.plantgroupperennials.com/) provides information and catalog sign up for those who love the beauty and accessibility of perennials of all types. Learn all you could ever want to know of perennials, and find fantastic shipment fees for all your delivery options.

The Plant Group, Inc.

Customer Service

800-864-2670

Mark@theplantgroup.com

Source: EmailWire.Com