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Updated: Feb 4, 2026

The MODS method for diagnosis of tuberculosis and multidrug resistant tuberculosis
Published on: August 11, 2008
Predicting the Outcomes of New Short-Course Regimens for Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis Using Intrahost and
Tan N Doan1,2,3, Pengxing Cao4, Theophilus I Emeto2,5
1Department of Medicine at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia tan.doan@uqconnect.edu.au pengxing.cao@unimelb.edu.au.
Abstract:
Short-course regimens for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) are urgently needed. Limited data suggest that the new drug bedaquiline (BDQ) may have the potential to shorten MDR-TB treatment to less than 6 months when used in conjunction with standard anti-TB drugs. However, the feasibility of BDQ in shortening MDR-TB treatment duration remains to be established. Mathematical modeling provides a platform to investigate different treatment regimens and predict their efficacy. We developed a mathematical model to capture the immune response to TB inside a human host environment. This model was then combined with a pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic model to simulate various short-course BDQ-containing regimens. Our modeling suggests that BDQ could reduce MDR-TB treatment duration to just 18 weeks (4 months) while still maintaining a very high treatment success rate (100% for daily BDQ for 2 weeks, or 95% for daily BDQ for 1 week during the intensive phase). The estimated time to bacterial clearance of these regimens ranges from 27 to 33 days. Our findings provide the justification for empirical evaluation of short-course BDQ-containing regimens. If short-course BDQ-containing regimens are found to improve outcomes, then we anticipate clear cost savings and a subsequent improvement in the efficiency of national TB programs.
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