Understanding anti-tuberculosis drug efficacy: rethinking bacterial populations and how we model them.

Abstract

Tuberculosis still remains a global health emergency, claiming 1.5 million lives in 2013. The bacterium responsible for this disease, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), has successfully survived within hostile host environments, adapting to immune defence mechanisms, for centuries. This has resulted in a disease that is challenging to treat, requiring lengthy chemotherapy with multi-drug regimens. One explanation for this difficulty in eliminating M.tb bacilli in vivo is the disparate action of antimicrobials on heterogeneous populations of M.tb, where mycobacterial physiological state may influence drug efficacy. In order to develop improved drug combinations that effectively target diverse mycobacterial phenotypes, it is important to understand how such subpopulations of M.tb are formed during human infection. We review here the in vitro and in vivo systems used to model M.tb subpopulations that may persist during drug therapy, and offer aspirations for future research in this field.

• Authors: Dimitrios Evangelopoulos, Joana Diniz da Fonseca, Simon J Waddell
• Journal: International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases (Int J Infect Dis) Vol. 32 Pg. 76-80 (Mar 2015) ISSN: 1878-3511 [Electronic] Canada
• PMID: 25809760 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Review)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Antitubercular Agents

Topics

• Animals
• Antitubercular Agents (therapeutic use)
• Humans
• Models, Biological
• Mycobacterium tuberculosis (drug effects)
• Tuberculosis (drug therapy, microbiology)