Gastric acid suppressant lansoprazole may target tuberculosis

A cheap and widely used drug, used to treat conditions such as heartburn, gastritis and ulcers, could work against the bacteria that cause tuberculosis (TB), according to new research from UCL and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The study, published today in PLOS Medicine , found that people who used lansoprazole, as opposed to similar drugs omeprazole or pantoprazole, were a third less likely to develop TB. In 2016, 10.4 million people fell ill with tuberculosis and it is in the top ten causes of death globally, killing more people than any other infectious disease. In England, there were a total of 5,664 TB cases in 2016 with London accounting for almost 40 per cent of all cases. According to a report by the London Assembly in 2015, one third of London's boroughs exceed the World Health Organisation "high incidence" threshold of 40 cases per 100,000 population per year and some boroughs have incidence levels as high as 113 per 100,000 people per year - significantly higher than countries such as Rwanda, Algeria, Iraq and Guatemala. "It would be a major breakthrough to find a new drug with useful activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and a favourable side effect profile - particularly a drug like lansoprazole, which costs pennies," said first author Dr Tom Yates (UCL Institute for Global Health).  "Laboratory, animal and now epidemiological data are all consistent with lansoprazole acting against the bacteria that cause TB.