Targeting drug tolerance in mycobacteria: a perspective from mycobacterial biofilms

Abstract

Multidrug chemotherapy for 6–9-months is one of the primary treatments in effective control of tuberculosis, although the mechanisms underlying the persistence of its etiological agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, against antibiotics remain unclear. Ever-mounting evidence indicates that the survival of many environmental and pathogenic microbial species against antibiotics is influenced by their ability to grow as surface-associated multicellular communities called biofilms. In recent years, several mycobacterial species, including M. tuberculosis, have been found to form drug-tolerant biofilms in vitro through genetically controlled mechanisms. In this review, the authors discuss the relevance of the in vitro mycobacterial biofilms in understanding the antibiotic recalcitrance of tuberculosis infections.

Keywords::

• biofilms
• drug tolerance
• Mycobacterium tuberculosis
• tuberculosis

Acknowledgements

The excellent technical support of Kathleen Kulkain proofreading this review is acknowledged. The authors also thank John Wiley & Sons for their policy to reproduce some of the figures originally published by AK Ojha in one of their journals.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The work in the Ojha laboratory is funded by the NIH (AI079288). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.