Sulphur dioxide, a pollutant, could aid fight on TB

* Study at IISER involved organic compounds that release sulphur dioxide which kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

• The gas is commonly used both as an antibiotic and an antioxidant. For centuries, it has been used as a preservative in wine-making because of its properties as an antioxidant.
• the key challenge was to control the delivery of sulphur dioxide to tap its therapeutic potential and possibly avoid undesirable side effects.

* Compounds that generate sulphur dioxide faster were found to be better in inhibiting Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) growth.

* New approaches to treat tuberculosis are driven by the need to tackle multi drug-resistant strains of Mtb

* Anti-mycobacterial activity appeared to depend on the rate at which sulphur dioxide was generated from the compound

* Team looking at detailed toxicological studies to find out how toxic the sulphur dioxide ‘prodrug’ can be to human cells

* The IISER, Pune, research is a sort of proof-of-concept, which would require further, extensive studies