We characterized here the scrapie infection of Wld(S)-mice in comparison to wild-type C57Bl/6 controls to determine whether mechanisms involved in Wallerian degeneration contribute to disease development in this murine model system. The Wld(S) mutation had neither an effect on survival times, nor on typical hallmarks of a prion infection like deposition of misfolded PrPSc and glia activation. At the ultrastructural level,
axonal damage like loss of axoplasms and disintegration of myelin sheaths was evident. Moreover, lysosomes accumulated in neuronal cell bodies. These alterations occured however similarly in Wld(S)- and wild-type mice. In conclusion, it appears unlikely that axonal damage of the kind, which is slowed down in Wld(S)-mice, contributes significantly to disease Forskolin nmr progression. These findings distinguish the neurodegeneration occuring in this prion model from chronic neurodegenerative diseases, in which the Wld(S)-mutation provides axon protection and greatly improves the clinical outcome. (c) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“BACKGROUND
The diarylquinoline TMC207 offers a new mechanism of antituberculosis action by inhibiting mycobacterial ATP synthase. TMC207 potently inhibits drug-sensitive R428 cell line and drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in vitro and shows bactericidal activity in patients who have drug-susceptible pulmonary tuberculosis.
METHODS
In the first
stage of a two-stage, phase 2, randomized, controlled trial, we randomly assigned 47 patients who had newly diagnosed multidrug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis to receive either TMC207 (400 mg daily for 2 weeks, followed by 200 mg three eFT-508 times a week for 6 weeks) (23 patients) or placebo (24 patients) in combination with a standard five-drug, second-line antituberculosis regimen. The primary efficacy end point was the conversion of sputum cultures, in liquid broth, from positive to negative.
RESULTS
The addition of TMC207 to standard therapy for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis reduced the time to conversion to a negative sputum culture, as compared with placebo (hazard ratio, 11.8; 95% confidence interval, 2.3 to 61.3; P = 0.003
by Cox regression analysis) and increased the proportion of patients with conversion of sputum culture (48% vs. 9%). The mean log(10) count of colony-forming units in the sputum declined more rapidly in the TMC207 group than in the placebo group. No significant differences in average plasma TMC207 concentrations were noted between patients with and those without culture conversion. Most adverse events were mild to moderate, and only nausea occurred significantly more frequently among patients in the TMC207 group than among patients in the placebo group (26% vs. 4%, P = 0.04).
CONCLUSIONS
The clinical activity of TMC207 validates ATP synthase as a viable target for the treatment of tuberculosis. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00449644.