Linezolid: a Promising Agent for the Treatmentof Multiple and Extensively Drug-ResistantTuberculosis.

Dionysia D Fermeli,Vasileios K Dedes,Georgios I Panoutsopoulos,George D Panayiotakopoulos,Theodoros D Marantos,Alexandros-Leonidas D Liarakos

doi:10.3897/folmed.62.e48742

Dionysia D Fermeli, Vasileios K Dedes + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3897/folmed.62.e48742

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Abstract

Tuberculosis is a severe, infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The aim of this review was to present the efficacy of linezolid as an agent against multidrug and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis as gathered from many recent research studies. Linezolid seems to have strongly the potential of being used as an anti-tuberculosis agent because it blocks bacterial ribosomal protein synthesis. Nevertheless caution is required because of the adverse effects it causes, especially when the linezolid daily dosage exceeds 600 mg. The most severe adverse effects include anemia, peripheral neuropathy, optic neuropathy and thrombocytopenia. Still, more trials and research need to be done in order to gather more information and value the cost-benefit dosage of the treatment.

Highlights

Tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, constitutes one of the most severe diseases around the globe
After having searched the PubMed database, we found several studies as well as some systematic reviews that present the efficacy, the tolerability and the adverse events of linezolid use for the treatment of the Multi-Drug Resistant TB (MDR-TB) and XDR-TB
Tang et al.[67] in a multicenter, prospective, randomized controlled study for treating extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) concluded that the patients exposed to linezolid (1200 mg per day for 4-6 weeks followed by 300-600 mg per day thereafter) had better treatment outcomes compared to those in the control group (78.8% versus 37.6%, p

Summary

Introduction

Tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, constitutes one of the most severe diseases around the globe. It was thought to be incurable until the middle of the 20th century[1], new drug regimens are added to our armamentarium with favourable results. In India there were an estimated 2.0 million cases (21% of the estimated worldwide burden).[7,8]

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