Replication rates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in human macrophages do not correlate with mycobacterial antibiotic susceptibility.

ABSTRACT: The standard treatment of tuberculosis (TB) takes six to nine months to complete and this lengthy therapy contributes to the emergence of drug-resistant TB. TB is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and the ability of this bacterium to switch to a dormant phenotype has been suggested to be responsible for the slow clearance during treatment. A recent study showed that the replication rate of a non-virulent mycobacterium, Mycobacterium smegmatis, did not correlate with antibiotic susceptibility. However, the question whether this observation also holds true for Mtb remains unanswered. Here, in order to mimic physiological conditions of TB infection, we established a protocol based on long-term infection of primary human macrophages, featuring Mtb replicating at different rates inside

SUBMITTER: Raffetseder J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4227709 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature