Skip to main content
PMC home page
Infection and Immunity logoLink to Infection and Immunity
. 1995 Feb;63(2):741–743. doi: 10.1128/iai.63.2.741-743.1995

Drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis exhibit a range of virulence for mice.

D J Ordway 1, M G Sonnenberg 1, S A Donahue 1, J T Belisle 1, I M Orme 1
PMCID: PMC173064  PMID: 7822053

Abstract

A panel of clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, several of which were resistant to one or more antimycobacterial drugs, were tested for their capacity to give rise to active disease following aerogenic infection of normal immunocompetent mice. The panel exhibited a range of virulence in this model, which followed no clear trend in terms of geographical source, degree of drug resistance, or rate of growth in vitro. Several isolates grew very quickly over the first 20 days in mouse lungs before being contained by emerging immunity. In view of this latter observation, we hypothesize that it is possible that such so-called fast growers may be responsible for the rapid fatality sometimes seen in immunocompromised patients with tuberculosis. Moreover, the results of the study do not support the belief that increased drug resistance usually associates with loss of virulence of the isolate.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (167.5 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Beck-Sagué C., Dooley S. W., Hutton M. D., Otten J., Breeden A., Crawford J. T., Pitchenik A. E., Woodley C., Cauthen G., Jarvis W. R. Hospital outbreak of multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections. Factors in transmission to staff and HIV-infected patients. JAMA. 1992 Sep 9;268(10):1280–1286. doi: 10.1001/jama.1992.03490100078031. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bloom B. R., Murray C. J. Tuberculosis: commentary on a reemergent killer. Science. 1992 Aug 21;257(5073):1055–1064. doi: 10.1126/science.257.5073.1055. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Edlin B. R., Tokars J. I., Grieco M. H., Crawford J. T., Williams J., Sordillo E. M., Ong K. R., Kilburn J. O., Dooley S. W., Castro K. G. An outbreak of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis among hospitalized patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. N Engl J Med. 1992 Jun 4;326(23):1514–1521. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199206043262302. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Ellner J. J., Hinman A. R., Dooley S. W., Fischl M. A., Sepkowitz K. A., Goldberger M. J., Shinnick T. M., Iseman M. D., Jacobs W. R., Jr Tuberculosis symposium: emerging problems and promise. J Infect Dis. 1993 Sep;168(3):537–551. doi: 10.1093/infdis/168.3.537. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Iseman M. D. Treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. N Engl J Med. 1993 Sep 9;329(11):784–791. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199309093291108. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Jereb J. A., Kelly G. D., Dooley S. W., Jr, Cauthen G. M., Snider D. E., Jr Tuberculosis morbidity in the United States: final data, 1990. MMWR CDC Surveill Summ. 1991 Dec;40(3):23–27. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Kochi A., Vareldzis B., Styblo K. Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and its control. Res Microbiol. 1993 Feb;144(2):104–110. doi: 10.1016/0923-2508(93)90023-u. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. MITCHISON D. A., WALLACE J. G., BHATIA A. L., SELKON J. B., SUBBAIAH T. V., LANCASTER M. C. A comparison of the virulence in guinea-pigs of South Indian and British tubercle bacilli. Tubercle. 1960 Feb;41:1–22. doi: 10.1016/s0041-3879(60)80019-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. North R. J., Izzo A. A. Mycobacterial virulence. Virulent strains of Mycobacteria tuberculosis have faster in vivo doubling times and are better equipped to resist growth-inhibiting functions of macrophages in the presence and absence of specific immunity. J Exp Med. 1993 Jun 1;177(6):1723–1733. doi: 10.1084/jem.177.6.1723. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Pascopella L., Collins F. M., Martin J. M., Lee M. H., Hatfull G. F., Stover C. K., Bloom B. R., Jacobs W. R., Jr Use of in vivo complementation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis to identify a genomic fragment associated with virulence. Infect Immun. 1994 Apr;62(4):1313–1319. doi: 10.1128/iai.62.4.1313-1319.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Pearson M. L., Jereb J. A., Frieden T. R., Crawford J. T., Davis B. J., Dooley S. W., Jarvis W. R. Nosocomial transmission of multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. A risk to patients and health care workers. Ann Intern Med. 1992 Aug 1;117(3):191–196. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-117-3-191. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Zhang Y., Heym B., Allen B., Young D., Cole S. The catalase-peroxidase gene and isoniazid resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Nature. 1992 Aug 13;358(6387):591–593. doi: 10.1038/358591a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Infection and Immunity are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES