Building Optimal Three-Drug Combination Chemotherapy Regimens To Eradicate Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Its Slow-Growth Acid Phase

Mycobacterium tuberculosis metabolic state affects the response to therapy. Quantifying the effect of antimicrobials in the acid and nonreplicating metabolic phases of M. tuberculosis growth will help to optimize therapy for tuberculosis. As a brute-force approach to all possible drug combinations against M. tuberculosis in all different metabolic states is impossible, we have adopted a model-informed strategy to accelerate the discovery. Using multiple concentrations of each drug in time-kill studies, we examined single drugs and two- and threedrug combinations of pretomanid, moxifloxacin, and bedaquiline plus its active metabolite against M. tuberculosis in its acid-phase metabolic state. We used a non-parametric modeling approach to generate full distributions of interaction terms between pretomanid and moxifloxacin for susceptible and less susceptible populations. From the model, we could predict the 95% confidence interval of the simulated total bacterial population decline due to the 2-drug combination regimen of pretomanid and moxifloxacin and compare this to observed declines with 3-drug regimens. We found that the combination of pretomanid and moxifloxacin at concentrations equivalent to average or peak human concentrations effectively eradicated M. tuberculosis in its acid growth phase and prevented emergence of less susceptible isolates. The addition of bedaquiline as a third drug shortened time to total and less susceptible bacterial suppression by 8 days compared to the 2-drug regimen, which was significantly faster than the 2-drug kill.

Automated summary

The study utilized a model-informed strategy to accelerate discovery of drug combinations against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in acid-phase metabolic state. The combination of pretomanid and moxifloxacin effectively eradicated M. tuberculosis and prevented emergence of less susceptible isolates in the acid growth phase. Adding bedaquiline as a third drug shortened the time to total and less susceptible bacterial suppression significantly faster than the 2-drug regimen.