Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis that threatens millions of lives today. The bacteria usually infect the lungs but can also attack the kidneys, spine, and brain as stated by the CDC. Not everyone that has TB gets sick because there are two forms of this disease: latent TB infection (LTBI) and TB disease. Only people with the TB disease are able to spread TB to others which is becoming more of a problem as TB is becoming more difficult to treat with the rise of antibiotic resistance. The American Lung Association describes two types of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively-drug resistant TB (XDR-TB). MDR-TB is a result of TB being resistant to the antibiotics that have been used to treat TB for years such as isoniazid and rifampicin, the 2 most powerful anti-TB drugs. XDR-TB results from TB being resistant to the same first line drugs as well as additional secondary drugs used to treat MDR-TB.
An article from Science Daily describes a new drug that has been found to be more effective against TB than isoniazid and shows a lower tendency to develop resistance. Isoniazid requires an enzyme found in the bacteria to convert the medication to its active form to kill the pathogen. The problem with this is that some TB bacteria do not have this enzyme so under selective pressure with isoniazid, the bacteria without this enzyme reproduce, creating resistance. This new drug, named AN12855, has been found to enter and remain in the granulomas of lung tissue in mice, where the highest amounts of bacteria are found, longer thus killing them more effectively and reducing treatment time for patients. This provides promising results for a better drug to treat TB as an alternative for the current drugs that are expensive ($17,000/patient with non-MDR-TB, $134,000/patient with MDR-TB, and $430,000/patient with XDR-TB), and require treatment for 6-9 months which can have adverse effects on the normal microbiota of a person.
The rise of antibiotic resistance comes from TB drugs being misused or mismanaged such as when people do not take the full course of treatment, healthcare providers prescribe the wrong treatment, dose, or length of time, or drugs are poor quality. As someone who plans to become a pharmacist one day, I hope that in my career I can contribute to lowering the prevalence of antibiotic resistance in diseases. I remember one time from when I was a child and my mother came home to tell me she had been exposed to a TB patient in the hospital and had to be quarantined. Luckily she was not infected, but to think there are TB infections now resistant to treatments has a really scary impact on me. In addition, I never knew how expensive it was to treat TB and especially more resistant TB which is crazy to think about for people that do not have health insurance. As a future healthcare provider, I hope to spread awareness of antibiotic resistance so that people’s lives can continue to be saved.
Vaccine Culture 