AI Summary
The study found that second-line medications for drug-resistant tuberculosis are as effective as first-line medications for drug-sensitive tuberculosis patients. This could potentially lead to shorter treatment durations for drug-resistant TB. The research fills a knowledge gap on the microbiological response to these treatments and offers hope for more effective therapies against the bacterium that causes TB, which remains a significant global health threat.
Patients who have drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) have a similar microbiological response to bedaquiline-based second-line medications as patients with drug-sensitive TB taking first-line regimens, according to researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York and GHESKIO Centers in Haiti. Second-line medications are those that are given when one or more of the drugs given first for the disease are not effective. The research could have implications for shortening the duration of treatment for drug-resistant TB, which currently requires medications for up to 2 years, while those with drug-sensitive TB complete treatment in about 6 months.Â
The study, published Dec. 7 in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, “is thought to be the first to address the knowledge gap surrounding the microbiological response of patients receiving these two therapies,” said the paper’s lead author Dr. Kayvan Zainabadi, assistant professor of molecular microbiology at Weill Cornell Medicine.
We found that the new drugs we use to treat the drug-resistant form of the disease are as effective as our first-line medicines. Historically, they were much worse.”
Dr. Daniel W. Fitzgerald, study co-author, director of the Center for Global Health at Weill Cornell Medicine
Evolving treatments for a devastating disease
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB, infects the lungs, causing cough, fever and often death. Worldwide, 10.6 million people developed the condition in 2022, resulting in about 1.3 million deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), making it the top infectious disease killer worldwide. Approximately four percent of new TB infections