With multi drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) causing outbreaks in both developing and developed nations, new treatments are urgently required to tackle this infectious disease. A series of chemical-based compounds which could be potential drug candidates in the fight against TB have been developed in Singapore.

The compounds are developed by a joint team from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and the Experimental Drug Development Centre (EDDC), a national drug discovery and development platform hosted by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).

Neuro-Horizon Pharma LLC (NHP), a US-based drug development company, has licensed the compounds for commercialisation from NTU’s innovation and enterprise company, NTUitive, which had filed patent applications for the compounds.

This discovery was made possible through a transdisciplinary platform called TOPNet (Targeting Oxidative Phosphorylation Network) that is supported by the National Research Foundation Singapore (NRF Singapore).

These small molecule compounds were shown to inhibit a key enzyme used by the TB bacterium to produce ATP, an important molecule that is the primary source of energy for living cells.