Shanghai Jiaotong University and the University of California make major progress in tuberculosis treatment
Release date: 2016-03-31
Researchers from the University of California at Los Angeles and Shanghai Jiaotong University have taken an important step toward faster and more effective treatment of tuberculosis, which affects about 10 million people each year, killing 1.5 million people.
Combination therapy with multiple drugs is a clinical standard for multiple diseases. However, the number of potential combinations of different drugs and dose levels can be in the billions, making the prospect of choosing the best one seem daunting.
Feedback system control technology
In a study published in the latest study published in the PNAS Academy of Sciences, researchers used a technique called feedback system control to study cells infected with bacterial infections of tuberculosis. They quickly shrank from 600 million possibilities to 14 different combinations of tuberculosis drugs and 5 different doses. These combinations are effective in killing bacteria that cause tuberculosis, much faster than standard therapies used to treat tuberculosis.
He Zhiming of the University of California, Los Angeles said: "It is almost impossible to design a drug combination with the optimal drug dose ratio. Feedback system control technology shows that it can accurately determine the optimal ratio for a wider range of diseases."
One of the authors, Dr. Marcus Horwitz of the University of California, Los Angeles, said, "If our findings can be corroborated in human studies, we have decided that new drug treatments will significantly reduce the time needed to treat tuberculosis. This will increase the success of treatment. Possibility to reduce the likelihood of patients developing resistant tuberculosis. A very successful and rapid treatment may accelerate the eradication of tuberculosis."
The current treatment of drug-sensitive tuberculosis takes six to eight months, and for drug-resistant tuberculosis, treatment takes up to two years. The standard treatment regimen for drug-sensitive tuberculosis includes four different drugs. Many patients stop taking the drug before completing the treatment, which leads to the emergence of drug-resistant tuberculosis strains.
Effect of the drug being screened
The researchers in this study infected macrophages with highly virulent tuberculosis. Live bacteria are fluorescently stained and it can be observed that the drug kills the bacteria and eliminates the fluorescence.
The feedback system controls the quick elimination of potential dead angles and automatically adjusts the drug dose combination to zero for the most effective, saving a lot of time and effort. This allowed the researchers to determine the ideal combination of drug doses, requiring only four rounds of testing, with approximately 125 tests per round.
The team also found that two major tuberculosis drugs, isoniazid and rifampin, were counterproductive when combined with other drugs. Another drug, clofazimine, which is usually not used for tuberculosis treatment, is listed as the most promising combination.
The researchers also completed an animal study that has not yet been published. The results of this study have prompted a promising combination for human trials and plans are underway.
Source: Bio-Exploration
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