PREDICTING EFFECTIVE DRUG REGIMEN FOR TUBERCULOSIS

Pharma pulse by LinuMohan

PREDICTING EFFECTIVE DRUG REGIMEN FOR TUBERCULOSIS

Tuberculosis (TB) is a communicable infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It can produce silent, latent infections, as well as progressive, active disease. Globally 2 billion people are infected and roughly 2 million people are die from TB each year.

Inappropriate or incorrect use of antimicrobial drugs or use of ineffective formulations of drugs, and premature treatment interruption can cause drug resistance. A report by WHO reveals that, in the year 2014, about1.5 million people died of TB and out of that, about 480,000 had multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), which means the organism, is resistant to at least two of the most potent TB drugs available. Because of this resistance, TB drug therapy can extend for months or even years, with drugs having harmful side effects, and results in treatment failure. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a more potent, combination of drugs to tackle TB. However, very few new TB drugs have been developed in recent decades. So, to prevent TB from developing resistance, it must be treated with ideal combination of multiple drugs.

Recently the scientists has developed a method of gene regulatory network analysis in which researchers used mapped gene regulatory network model of mycobacterium tuberculosis, to identify how the organism  become tolerant to the relatively new anti-TB drug bedaquiline. Using network analysis, they distinguished 2 key regulatory genes whose activation appeared to control the changes that drive organism into a drug-tolerant state. When either of these genes was disrupted, the bacteria were once again susceptible to the drug. They used this network-enabled knowledge to find a second drug (pretomanid) to counteract tolerance against bedaquiline.In laboratory experiments, the team found that when pretomanid was used with bedaquiline the drugs acted synergistically to kill TB bacteria

This gene regulatory network analysis will help to explain the effectiveness of an experimental drug combination against drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria, which can be used for the development of effective combination drug regimens against tuberculosis.

PACING CAPSULE-TRANSCATHETER PACING SYSTEM

Arrhythmia is loss of cardiac rhythm, especially irregularity of heartbeat. This may cause clinical manifestations ranging from no symptoms to minor palpitations or irregular pulse to severe and even life threatening symptoms. During an arrhythmia, the heart can beat too fast, too slow, or with an irregular rhythm. A heartbeat that is too fast is called tachycardia and a heartbeat that is too slow is called bradycardia. The heart may not be able to pump adequate amount of blood to the body parts during an arrhythmia. This can develop symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, or fainting. Severe arrhythmias can damage the body's vital organs and may even cause loss of consciousness or death.

A pacemaker is a small device that is placed in the chest or abdomen to help control abnormal heart rhythms. This device uses electrical pulses to induce the heart to beat at a normal rate. Recently FDA has given approval for new Transcatheter Pacing System (TPS) which is the world’s smallest pacemaker.

This device is administered percutaneously with minimum invasive approach, directly into the right ventricle. The Transcatheter Pacing System (TPS) is a single chamber pacing system it paces only the right ventricle of the heart.Using a catheter delivery system, TPS is implanted directly into the heart through the femoral vein. It generates electrical impulses that results the heart to contract or beat. Once in place, the pacemaker monitors the heart rate and adjusts therapy in response to the patient’s activity level. This device is indicated to be used in patients who have slow or irregular heart rhythms and who may benefit from a single chamber pacemaker system. There are no known contraindications for the use of pacing as a therapy to control heart rate. The selection of the pacing system, the mode of operation, and the implant technique used, are influenced by patient’s age and medical condition.