Failure of aureomycin in the treatment of experimental tuberculosis.

Abstract

The failure of streptomycin, p-aminosalicylic acid and the sulfone compounds to prove ideal agents for the treatment of tuberculosis has stimulated the testing of many new agents. Because of the remarkably wide anti-microbial spectrum of aureomycin, it seemed worthwhile to study its effect upon experimental tuberculosis.Guinea pigs weighing 400 to 500 G each were inoculated subcutaneously with 0.02 mg tubercle bacilli from a recently isolated, virulent, streptomycin-sensitive human strain. After 28 days, the animals were divided into two groups. The 12 animals in Group A were treated with daily subcutaneous injection of 5 mg aureomycin hydrochloride, 6 days a week for 6 weeks. The 11 animals in Group B served as infected, untreated controls.A third group, Group C, consisted of 6 uninfected guinea pigs given aureomycin in the same dosage as Group A, in order to observe possible toxic effects of the drug.Animals were autopsied as they died, and those surviving after 6 weeks of treatment or 10 weeks after in...