Kerantzas Christopher A, Jacobs William R
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA
mBio. 2017 Mar 14;8(2):e01586-16. doi: 10.1128/mBio.01586-16.
Tuberculosis is a global health problem that causes the death of approximately 1.5 million people worldwide each year (WHO, p. 1-126, , 2015). Treatment of drug-susceptible tuberculosis requires combination antimicrobial therapy with a minimum of four antimicrobial agents applied over the course of 6 months. The first instance of combination antimicrobial therapy applied to tuberculosis was the joint use of streptomycin and -aminosalicylic acid as documented by the Medical Research Council of the United Kingdom in 1950. These antimicrobial drugs were the product of many decades of investigation into both organism-derived antibiotics and synthetic chemotherapy and were the first agents in those respective categories to show substantial clinical efficacy and widespread use for tuberculosis. The events leading to the discovery and application of these two agents demonstrate that investments in all aspects of research, from basic science to clinical application, are necessary for the continued success of science in finding treatments for human disease. This observation is especially worth considering given the expanded role that combination therapy may play in combating the current rise in resistance to antimicrobial drugs.
结核病是一个全球性的健康问题，每年导致全球约150万人死亡（世界卫生组织，第1 - 126页，2015年）。治疗药物敏感型结核病需要联合使用抗菌疗法，在6个月的疗程中至少应用四种抗菌药物。1950年英国医学研究委员会记录了抗菌联合疗法首次应用于结核病的情况，即链霉素和对氨基水杨酸的联合使用。这些抗菌药物是对生物源抗生素和合成化疗进行了数十年研究的产物，是各自类别中首批显示出显著临床疗效并广泛用于结核病治疗的药物。导致这两种药物被发现和应用的事件表明，从基础科学到临床应用的各个研究层面的投入，对于科学在寻找人类疾病治疗方法方面持续取得成功是必要的。鉴于联合疗法在应对当前抗菌药物耐药性上升方面可能发挥的扩大作用，这一观察结果尤其值得考虑。
