Daily Antibiotics May Prevent Drug Resistant Tuberculosis
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Prescribing antibiotic doses once or twice a week for tuberculosis (TB) treatment are more likely to lead to drug resistant strains than daily antibiotic regimens, a computer model of the disease has shown.
The finding, from a University of Michigan study, could help inform the treatment of the roughly 10 million people worldwide who fall ill with tuberculosis each year, researchers said.
Active tuberculosis is notoriously difficult to treat, and the spread of antibiotic-resistant TB is increasing.
Current drug regimens start with four different antibiotics for the first two months, dropping to two antibiotics for four more months of treatment.
"Experimentalists can't test thousands and thousands of antibiotic regimens, but we can," said Jennifer Linderman, U-M professor of chemical engineering and biomedical engineering.
Experiments with animals are expensive and time-consuming, and present ethical dilemmas, so the team is developing a reliable computer model of tuberculosis that can test many drug combinations and treatment regimens quickly.
The finding, from a University of Michigan study, could help inform the treatment of the roughly 10 million people worldwide who fall ill with tuberculosis each year, researchers said.
Active tuberculosis is notoriously difficult to treat, and the spread of antibiotic-resistant TB is increasing.
Current drug regimens start with four different antibiotics for the first two months, dropping to two antibiotics for four more months of treatment.
"Experimentalists can't test thousands and thousands of antibiotic regimens, but we can," said Jennifer Linderman, U-M professor of chemical engineering and biomedical engineering.
Experiments with animals are expensive and time-consuming, and present ethical dilemmas, so the team is developing a reliable computer model of tuberculosis that can test many drug combinations and treatment regimens quickly.
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