title: Efflux as a mechanism for drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
abstract: Tuberculosis remains an important global public health problem, with an estimated prevalence of 14 million individuals with tuberculosis worldwide in 2007. Because antibiotic treatment is one of the main tools for tuberculosis control, knowledge of Mycobacterium tuberculosis drug resistance is an important component for the disease control strategy. Although several gene mutations in specific loci of the M. tuberculosis genome have been reported as the basis for drug resistance, additional resistance mechanisms are now believed to exist. Efflux is a ubiquitous mechanism responsible for intrinsic and acquired drug resistance in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Mycobacterium tuberculosis presents one of the largest numbers of putative drug efflux pumps compared with its genome size. Bioinformatics as well as direct and indirect evidence have established relationships among drug efflux with intrinsic or acquired resistance in M. tuberculosis. This minireview describes the current knowledge on drug efflux in M. tuberculosis.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Rio Grande, BrazilMycobacteriology Unit, Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp, Belgium.
authors.forename: Pedro Eduardo Almeida
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Von Groll
authors.forename: Anandi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Juan Carlos
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Palomino
mesh_terms: D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D001693:Biological Transport, Active; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000995:Antitubercular Agents; D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D026901:Membrane Transport Proteins