In vitro screening of snake venom against multidrug-resistant tuberculosis

The re-emergence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has brought to light the importance of screening effective novel drugs. In the present study, in vitro activities of different snake (Naja naja, Bungarus fasciatus, Daboia russelli russelli, Naja kaouthia) venoms have been investigated against clinical isolate of MDR-TB strains. The treatment with all the venoms inhibited the mycobacterial growth for at least a week in common and two of them (Naja naja and Naja kaouthia) showed significantly longer inhibition up to two weeks against the MDR-TB strain with single dose and a repetition of those two venoms exhibited inhibition up to more than four weeks.