Browsing by Author "Venter, Amour"

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    Direct susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis for Pyrazinamide by Use of the Bactec MGIT 960 system
    (American Society for Microbiology, 2016-05) Demers, Anne-Marie; Venter, Amour; Friedrich, Sven O.; Rojas-Ponce, Gabriel; Mapamba, Daniel; Jugheli, Levan; Sasamalo, Mohammed; Almeida, Deepak; Dorasamy, Afton; Jentsch, Ute; Gibson, Mara; Everitt, Daniel; Eisenach, Kathleen D.; Diacon, Andreas H.
    Pyrazinamide (PZA) is a key antituberculosis drug, yet no rapid susceptibility test is commercially available. PZA drug susceptibility testing (DST) was performed directly on sputum samples from 327 patients and compared with the indirect method by using the Bactec MGIT 960 system in the context of patient screening for participation in a drug trial. Compared to standard indirect PZA DST, direct DST was successful in only 59% of cases, but results obtained were highly accurate and available faster. Agreement between the direct and indirect methods varied from 90 to 100% in each laboratory. The median times for obtaining PZA results from the time when the specimen was collected ranged from 11 to 16 days for the direct test and 18 to 95 days for the indirect test across laboratories. The direct method is accurate and reproducible across laboratories. It can be expected to accelerate results in >50% of cases, but it cannot replace indirect DST for PZA. Phenotypic methods remain the gold standard for DST in drug trials. If future studies can optimize the method to decrease the number of uninterpretable results, direct MGIT DST could be the new phenotypic DST standard for clinical trials, providing more rapid detection of resistance to new drugs in experimental regimens.
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    Mycobactericidal activity of sutezolid (PNU-100480) in sputum (EBA) and blood (WBA) of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis
    (PLoS, 2014-04-14) Wallis, Robert S.; Dawson, Rodney; Friedrich, Sven O.; Venter, Amour; Paige, Darcy; Zhu, Tong; Silvia, Annette; Gobey, Jason; Ellery, Craig; Zhang, Yao; Eisenach, Kathleen; Miller, Paul; Diacon, Andreas H.
    Rationale: Sutezolid (PNU-100480) is a linezolid analog with superior bactericidal activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the hollow fiber, whole blood and mouse models. Like linezolid, it is unaffected by mutations conferring resistance to standard TB drugs. This study of sutezolid is its first in tuberculosis patients. Methods: Sputum smear positive tuberculosis patients were randomly assigned to sutezolid 600 mg BID (N = 25) or 1200 mg QD (N = 25), or standard 4-drug therapy (N = 9) for the first 14 days of treatment. Effects on mycobacterial burden in sputum (early bactericidal activity or EBA) were monitored as colony counts on agar and time to positivity in automated liquid culture. Bactericidal activity was also measured in ex vivo whole blood cultures (whole blood bactericidal activity or WBA) inoculated with M. tuberculosis H37Rv. Results: All patients completed assigned treatments and began subsequent standard TB treatment according to protocol. The 90% confidence intervals (CI) for bactericidal activity in sputum over the 14 day interval excluded zero for all treatments and both monitoring methods, as did those for cumulative WBA. There were no treatment-related serious adverse events, premature discontinuations, or dose reductions due to laboratory abnormalities. There was no effect on the QT interval. Seven sutezolid-treated patients (14%) had transient, asymptomatic ALT elevations to 173±34 U/L on day 14 that subsequently normalized promptly; none met Hy's criteria for serious liver injury. Conclusions: The mycobactericidal activity of sutezolid 600 mg BID or 1200 mg QD was readily detected in sputum and blood. Both schedules were generally safe and well tolerated. Further studies of sutezolid in tuberculosis treatment are warranted.