Towards host-directed therapies for tuberculosis
Zumla, A., Chakaya, J., Hoelscher, M. , Ntoumi, F., Rustomjee, R., Vilaplana, C., Yeboah-Manu, D., Rasolof, V., Munderi, P., Singh, N., Aklillu, E., Padayatchi, N., Macete, E., Kapata, N., Mulenga, M., Kibiki, G., Mfinanga, S., Nyirenda, T., Maboko, L., Garcia-Basteiro, A., Rakotosamimanana, N., Bates, M., Mwaba, P., Reither, K., Gagneux, S., Edwards, S., Mfinanga, E., Abdulla, S., Cardona, P-J., Russell, J. B. W., Gant, V., Noursadeghi, M., Elkington, P., Bonnet, M., Menendez, C., Dieye, T. N., Diarra, B., Maiga, A., Aseffa, A., Parida, S., Wejse, C., Petersen, E., Kaleebu, P., Oliver, M., Craig, G. M., Corrah, T., Tientcheu, L., Antonio, M., Rao, M.R., McHugh, T. D., Sheikh, A., Ippolito, G., Ramjee, G., Kaufmann, S. H. E., Churchyard, G., Steyn, A., Grobusch, M., Sanne, I., Martinson, N., Madansein, R., Wilkinson, R. J., Mayosi, B., Schito, M., Wallis, R. S. & Maeurer, M. (2015). Towards host-directed therapies for tuberculosis. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 14(8), pp. 511-512. doi: 10.1038/nrd4696
Abstract
The treatment of tuberculosis is based on combinations of drugs that directly target Mycobacterium tuberculosis. A new global initiative is now focusing on a complementary approach of developing adjunct host-directed therapies.
Despite the availability of effective antibiotics for tuberculosis (TB) for the past half century, it remains an important global health problem; there are ~9 million active TB cases and ~1.5 million TB-induced deaths per year (see the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Report in Further information). Health services around the world face major barriers to achieving optimal outcomes from current TB treatment regimens. These barriers include: the spread of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB); complex and toxic treatment regimens for MDR-TB; HIV co-infection; pharmacokinetic interactions between TB drugs and antiretroviral drugs; relapse; permanent damage to lung and other tissues; long-term functional disability; immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS); and co-morbidity with non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and chronic obstructive airway diseases. Another fundamental problem is the long duration of TB drug treatment (6 months for drug-sensitive TB and at least 18 months for drug-resistant TB) to achieve a cure, owing to the presence of dormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli that are phenotypically resistant to current classes of anti-TB drugs, which can only target bacterial replication.
There is therefore an urgent need for new TB treatments. However, the TB drug pipeline is thin1, 2. For the past 60 years, efforts to develop new treatments have focused on compounds and regimens that target M. tuberculosis directly. Recently, however, attention has focused on investigating a range of adjunct treatment interventions known as host-directed therapies (HDTs) that instead target the host response to infection. Here, we highlight the rationale for HDTs, the current portfolio of HDTs and their mechanisms of action, and a consortium-based approach to drive forward their evaluation in clinical trials.
| Publication Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Copyright Nature Publishing Group 2015 |
| Publisher Keywords: | Change history, References, Author information, Supplementary information |
| Subjects: | R Medicine > RC Internal medicine |
| Departments: | School of Health & Psychological Sciences |
| SWORD Depositor: |
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