Classical and new assays for detecting drug resistance in tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis is a public health concern worldwide. Particularly worrying is the emergence of severe forms of drug resistance, such as extensively drug resistant and totally drug resistant tuberculosis, with few treatment options for the afflicted patients. To avoid further spread of drug resistance, its early detection is extremely important. Conventional phenotypic procedures to detect drug resistance depended on the in vitro slow growth of the bacteria. More recent molecular approaches such as reverse-hybridization assays and real-time PCR tests have been introduced. Newer options proposed include, faster culture-based methods and whole-genome sequencing and nanotechnology. Not yet available is a real point-of-care test, applied directly in clinical samples and reliable enough for guiding a treatment option.
Laboratory of Microbiology, Department of Biochemistry & Microbiology, Ghent University, KL Ledeganckstraat 35, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
Juan Carlos
JC
Palomino
Peter
P
Vandamme
Anandi
A
Martin
D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics; D020798:Two-Hybrid System Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation
Mycobacterium tuberculosis; drug resistance; methods; molecular diagnostics