결핵연구원

Treatment

KIT is making efforts to develop TB and NTM treatments through collaborative research with excellent research, pharmaceutical, and clinical institutions domestically and internationally.
TB and NTM are significant public health issues worldwide. According to WHO reports, TB infects ten million people annually, with approximately 1.4 million deaths, making it a major disease. Due to the long treatment duration and high incidence of side effects, TB treatment faces considerable challenges.
Moreover, NTM infections pose serious health problems for individuals with weakened immune systems, with a much lower treatment success rate than TB.
Under the clear goal of eradicating TB, KIT is striving and exerting efforts to develop TB and NTM treatments through collaborative research with excellent institutions both domestically and internationally.
Exploration of effective substances derived from rare natural products for anti-TB treatment
Development of anti-TB treatments based on low molecular weight compounds
The success of developing new mechanisms of action for TB treatments is not limited to TB treatment domestically and internationally. In Korea, the incidence of non-tuberculous mycobacterial infections is increasing, and efforts can be expanded to develop drugs targeting them. Through interaction with existing TB drugs and those currently under development, more efficient TB treatment methods can be developed.

Exploring microbiota that can improve adherence to TB treatment by addressing side effects and risk of recurrence caused by long-term anti-TB drug use, and conducting research on adjunctive TB therapy by identifying microbiota.

Domestic microbiome and disease correlations are extended beyond intestinal microbiota to various human organs. Internationally, the composition of intestinal microbiota has been reported to affect the onset of various diseases, including respiratory and pulmonary diseases, with considerable relevance to TB and even COVID-19.
This is because microbes entering through respiration are major inoculants of the respiratory and intestinal tracts, and healthy intestinal microbes help regulate immunity and maintain homeostasis through ligand or metabolite secretion.
Although the hypothesis that the microbiome axis of the intestine and lungs may be mutually related in TB, a pulmonary disease caused by TB infection, is widely accepted, there is no concrete evidence domestically or internationally. Revealing the microbial network between the intestines and lungs in pulmonary TB, like other diseases, could be a crucial key to discovering microbiome-based adjunctive therapies.
Recruiting TB patients and healthy individuals for comparative analysis of microbiomes from feces representing the intestine and sputum representing the lungs, in collaboration with Red Cross physicians and research hospitals affiliated with KNTA, analyzing microbiomes at the species level, and comparing the results based on TB treatment progress and treatment impact factors to identify candidates for microbiome that can enhance TB treatment efficacy.

Isolation and analysis of bacteriophages as candidate therapeutic agents for bacteriophage therapy, aimed at minimizing antibiotic resistance and improving treatment outcomes.
Development of biotherapeutics for tuberculosis(TB) and non-tuberculous mycobacteria using bacteriophages.
Bacteriophages, also known as 'viruses that eat bacteria,' possess the characteristic of only attacking bacteria without affecting other organisms. Due to this feature, bacteriophage therapy has garnered attention as an alternative treatment strategy for rapidly responding to antibiotic-resistant bacteria, particularly with the implementation of the Second National Antibiotic Resistance Management Plan (2021-2025).
Bacteriophages offer an effective and side-effect-free means of eliminating antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are not easily treated with conventional anti-TB drugs