Abstract:

The early bactericidal activity of anti-tuberculosis drugs reflects the ability to kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) with high metabolism and proliferation after entering the blood and tissues, to control the disease early and reduce the infectivity. Decurrently, commonly used methods for determining early bactericidal activity of drugs mainly include sputum colony forming units on solid medium and determining positive time on liquid medium. The results of the two methods are normally consistent. Early bactericidal activity research is currently an important part of the development of new anti-tuberculosis drugs, which can predict the bactericidal activity of the drug. However, it cannot measure the sterilization activity of the drug, which could only be estimated according to either the recurrence rate after routine clinical trials or the sputum conversion rate in 2 months. At present, the epidemic of tuberculosis is severe, and difficulties and challenges are found in the treatment. It is new drugs with high bactericidal activity are urgently to develop to actively inhibit the growth of MTB and the spread of tuberculosis. This review of the early bactericidal activity of the main anti-tuberculosis drugs and the main research methods aimed to provide reference for the better application of existing drugs and development of new drugs.

Key words: Antitubercular agents, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Early bactericidal activity, Drug evaluation, Review literature as topic