NEJM: researchers find new ways to prevent drug resistance of anti tuberculosis drugs

June 7, 2019 / BIOON / - last July, South Africa became the first country to launch new anti TB drugs in its national plan The new drug, bedaquiline, is the first new anti tuberculosis drug developed in 40 years It improves the survival of MDR-TB patients and may make the treatment time shorter and side effects smaller Scientists at http://cn.bing.com Stellenbosch University (Su), working with a multidisciplinary team of researchers and clinicians, are now trying to protect this life-saving treatment by studying how Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the drug that causes tuberculosis, is resistant to the drug Their findings will be used as a guide to TB treatment to ensure the correct combination of anti TB drugs and bedaquiline to optimize patient outcomes while minimizing the risk of drug resistance Dr Margaretha de Vos, one of the main authors of a recent scientific review published in the New England Journal of medicine, said: "we need to protect bedaquiline from the development of drug resistance, so it is crucial to understand the speed and mechanism of the development of bedaquiline drug resistance "This article is based on research by de Vos and his colleagues in the Department of molecular biology and human genetics at the Su School of medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) Su researchers used a combination of new techniques to study the development of bedaquiline resistance in a 65 year old patient from Cape Town These include (1) sequencing the entire genome of bacteria in samples collected by patients at different stages of the disease, (2) targeting in-depth sequencing of bacterial gene rv0678 related to bedaquiline resistance, and (3) culture-based drug sensitivity testing Research shows that although patients adhere to the standard treatment plan, there is still resistance to bedaquiline The standard treatment requires patients to take at least five antibiotic drugs that are not resistant to bacteria at the same time as bedaquiline "These results show that it is essential to strengthen our monitoring of patients receiving bedaquiline treatment and develop new diagnostic tools to quickly identify bedaquiline resistance By quickly identifying bedaquiline resistance, we will be able to change the treatment to prevent the spread of resistant bacteria "Said Rob Warren, a well-known professor of Microbiology and co-author of the article Helen Cox, one of the co authors of the study, said: "while it is important to monitor the emergence of drug resistance, such as bedaquiline, these data do not mean that we should limit the use of bedaquiline in thousands of people in South Africa who urgently need to improve drug-resistant TB treatment "Reference: Margaretha de Vos et al, bedaquiline micromateroresistance after cession of tuberculosis treatment, New England Journal of Medicine (2019) Doi: 10.1056/nejmc11815121