Toward a Bactericidal Oral Drug Combination for the Treatment of <i>Mycobacterium abscessus</i> Lung Disease.

ABSTRACT: Treatment of Mycobacterium abscessus lung disease relies on underperforming drug combinations and includes parenteral, poorly tolerated, and bacteriostatic antibiotics. We posit that safe, oral, and bactericidal regimens are needed to improve cure rates and shorten treatment. Here, we combined oral representatives of three well-tolerated bactericidal drug classes, the β-lactam tebipenem (together with the β-lactamase inhibitor avibactam), the fluoroquinolone moxifloxacin, and the rifamycin rifabutin, and profiled the combination in vitro and in vivo. The combination potentiated bactericidal activity of its components against replicating M. abscessus and retained bactericidal activity against the nonreplicating, drug-tolerant form of the bacterium residing in surrogate caseum.

SUBMITTER: Sarathy JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11997990 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature