The value of in vitro drug activity and pharmacokinetics in predicting the effectiveness of antimycobacterial therapy: a critical review.

Abstract

Marked increases in case rates of drug-resistant tuberculosis and nontuberculous mycobacterial infections have brought renewed urgency to the development of new treatment regimens for mycobacterial infections. Preclinical data, such as in vitro measures of drug activity and pharmacokinetics, are used in the design of new treatment regimens. This review surveys the extensive published clinical experience concerning the treatment of drug-susceptible tuberculosis to evaluate the use of these preclinical measures in predicting clinical outcomes of antimycobacterial therapy. In vitro measures of drug activity predict the potency of a drug to prevent the emergence of resistance to other antimycobacterial drugs but do not predict the sterilizing activity of a drug or the activity of drug combinations. In vitro measures of drug activity do not allow reliable predictions of the level at which an organism should be considered resistant. Assays of drug penetration in tissues and activity against intracellular bacilli add modestly to the predictive value of in vitro measures of drug activity but still do not predict sterilizing activity. In contrast, animal models of tuberculosis have predicted relative drug potency (including sterilizing activity), the efficacy of multidrug regimens, and the duration of therapy needed. Despite pharmacokinetic parameters that would suggest the need for multiple doses per day, all of the first-line antituberculous drugs are active when given as infrequently as twice weekly. It is difficult to predict the efficacy of therapy for an intracellular pathogen that has the capacity for dormancy. Better in vitro models are needed, particularly ones that predict sterilizing activity.

• Authors: W J Burman
• Journal: The American journal of the medical sciences (Am J Med Sci) Vol. 313 Issue 6 Pg. 355-63 (Jun 1997) ISSN: 0002-9629 [Print] United States
• PMID: 9186151 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Review)

Chemical References

• Anti-Bacterial Agents

Topics

• Anti-Bacterial Agents (pharmacokinetics, pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Humans
• Microbial Sensitivity Tests
• Models, Biological
• Mycobacterium (drug effects)
• Mycobacterium Infections (drug therapy)
• Predictive Value of Tests
• Tuberculosis (drug therapy)