Vitamin B6 deficiencies can also commonly happen as a result of isoniazid treatment for tuberculosis, as isoniazid attaches and inactivates vitamin B6.
Those at highest risk can take medicine, but Vanderbilt University researcher Timothy Stirling says not everyone follows through with the treatment, which is a daily dose of isoniazid for nine months.
Jacobs was studying whether the TB drug isoniazid was being inactivated by the presence of a particular amino acid, cysteine, which in chemical terms acts as a reducing agent, by donating electrons.