Prediction of drug resistance in M. tuberculosis: molecular mechanisms, tools, and applications.
Management of Tuberculosis is complicated by the emergence of drug resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and this poses a threat to the success of Tuberculosis control programmes. Drug susceptibility testing by culture is time-consuming and technically difficult. It is known that resistance to drugs is due to a number of genomic mutations in specific genes of M. tuberculosis. These mutations in combination with molecular techniques can be used as markers for drug resistance, since drug susceptible isolates lack the corresponding gene mutations. This review focuses on molecular mechanisms, methods and applications as a possible new diagnostic tool for the early molecular detection of drug resistance in M. tuberculosis.
MRC Centre for Molecular and Cellular Biology and Department of Medical Biochemistry, University of Stellenbosch, Tygerberg, South Africa. TV@sun.ac.za
Thomas C
TC
Victor
Paul D
PD
van Helden
Robin
R
Warren
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D004351:Drug Resistance; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000235:genetics*; D010641:Phenotype; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents