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Updated: Jul 2, 2026
A High-throughput Compatible Assay to Evaluate Drug Efficacy against Macrophage Passaged Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Published on: March 24, 2017
Evaluation of killing kinetics of anti-tuberculosis drugs on Mycobacterium tuberculosis using a bacteriophage-based
Nimi Marcel1, Ajay Nahta, Meenakshi Balganesh
1AstraZeneca India Private Limited, Bangalore, India.
Background:
Killing kinetics studies on Mycobacterium tuberculosis are labour intensive and time consuming since it takes nearly 6-7 weeks to get the data from an experiment. A modified protocol is required to increase the throughput and expedite the results.
Methods:
The killing kinetics of frontline drugs used for the treatment of tuberculosis was studied using 24-well plates and 2 methods of enumeration of survivors of M. tuberculosis following drug exposure, namely conventional plating (CFU) and a phage-based assay (plaque-forming units) using mycobacteriophage D29.
Results:
The use of 24-well plates enabled in reducing the volume of the compound required for the studies and the phage-based enumeration speeded up the readout and compared well with the CFU-based enumeration.
Conclusion:
These results were in agreement with the earlier findings reported with respect to rifampicin, isoniazid and moxifloxacin. Also, this study shows for the first time the concentration-dependent killing of streptomycin, the time-dependent killing of ethambutol and the profiling of an experimental anti-mycobacterial compound by these 2 methods.
