A computational tool integrating host immunity with antibiotic dynamics to study tuberculosis treatment.

ABSTRACT: While active tuberculosis (TB) is a treatable disease, many complex factors prevent its global elimination. Part of the difficulty in developing optimal therapies is the large design space of antibiotic doses, regimens and combinations. Computational models that capture the spatial and temporal dynamics of antibiotics at the site of infection can aid in reducing the design space of costly and time-consuming animal pre-clinical and human clinical trials. The site of infection in TB is the granuloma, a collection of immune cells and bacteria that form in the lung, and new data suggest that penetration of drugs throughout granulomas is problematic. Here we integrate our computational model of granuloma formation and function with models for plasma pharmacokinetics, lung tissue pharmacokinetic

SUBMITTER: Pienaar E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4332617 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature