Serum anti-tuberculous activity of a novel antibiotic

In the process of screening bacteria that can antagonize Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (the pathogen of rice) we obtained a bacterium that could produce a novel antibiotic (Chen-Xiaoxi et al., 2000). In a previous paper, we had reported that the antibiotic had a potent in vitro anti-tuberculous activity, even if the Mycobacterium tuberculosis belonged to multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) stains (Chen-Xiaoxi and Yue, 2010). This finding is of significance because the world is facing the danger of the resurgence of TB and the rapid emergence of MDR-TB and because no new drugs except rifabutin and rifapentine have been marketed for TB during the 40 years after release of rifampicin due to some constraints that have deterred companies from investing in new antiTB drugs (Joas da Silva et al., 2009). With the in vitro anti-tuberculous activity being so promising, we wondered whether the antibiotic had a good in vivo antituberculous performance.