Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Commons^™

Strategies To Combat Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis: Inhalable Microparticles Formulated With Anti-Tubercular Antibiotics And Efflux Pump Inhibitors, Elliott K. Miller

Pharmaceutical Sciences ETDs

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is an intracellular pathogen which can remain dormant within the human body for years (latent tuberculosis), and once active requires extensive multidrug therapies for treatment. Long-term antibiotic(s) exposure have led to the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains which require novel treatment approaches to combat Mtb resistance. Mtb may also utilize efflux pumps to expel antibiotics and promote bacterial survival, potentially mediating drug tolerance, which has been hypothesized to contribute to antibiotic resistance. Efflux pump inhibitors (EPIs) such as verapamil (VER) may potentiate effects of first-line anti-tubercular drugs (ATDs) such as rifampicin …