Potential role of roxithromycin against the Mycobacterium avium complex

Until the recent experience with azithromycin and clarithromycin, macrolides were not considered to be important agents against mycobacteria. Clinical evidence is now growing that the newer 14 and 15 membered macrolide compounds have therapeutic activity against Mycobacterium avium, Mycobacterium chelonae and Mycobacterium leprae. Several years ago, when evaluating the activity of roxithromycin using one of the more virulent M. avium in our collection, the authors found that roxithromycin exerted a bacteriostatic effect in cultured human macrophages. However, in combination with tumour necrosis factor, which induces macrophage activation, roxithromycin caused enhanced intracellular killing. The significance of this finding is that tumour necrosis factor can be elaborated by activated macrophages during the course of infection. The roxithromycin doses that were chosen for these studies were less than achievable blood levels. More recently, the in vitro effect of roxithromycin against a panel of isolates from AIDS patients has been assessed and it was found that some (but not all) of the inhibitory concentrations, by the T-100 method of Inderlied, are within achievable serum levels. This, however, may not be the basis for anticipating in vivo activity since macrolide compounds are known to be concentrated within cells and particularly within phagolysosomes. Demonstration of effect in an in vitro test system is encouraging, but should be considered only as a preliminary step to careful assessments in experimental animals, such as the beige mouse, and studies in humans.