As a follow-up of the "spoligoriftyping" development, we present here an extension of this technique which includes the detection of isoniazid resistance-associated mutations in a new 59-plex assay, i.e., tuberculosis-spoligo-rifampin-isoniazid typing (TB-SPRINT), running on microbead-based multiplexed systems. This assay improves the synergy between clinical microbiology and epidemiology by pr...

Understanding the ecology of drug-resistant pathogens is essential for devising rational programs to preserve the effective lifespan of antimicrobial agents and to abrogate epidemics of drug-resistant organisms. Mathematical models predict that strain fitness is an important determinant of multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission, but the effects of strain diversity have been...

OBJECTIVE To determine if isoniazid- and/or rifampicin-free antituberculosis treatment regimens are safe and effective and to identify any factors that might require changes in the regimens. PATIENTS AND METHODS We carried out a retrospective study of patients treated with isoniazid- and/or rifampicin-free regimens between 1995 and 2005 at 2 specialized hospitals in Barcelona, Spain. Predicti...

This study was planned to determine HIV seroprevalence among pulmonary tuberculosis patients, to characterize the isolated mycobacteria into typical and atypical strains and to evaluate the drug resistant pattern of mycobacterial isolates. The study aims to correlate multidrug resistance (MDR) and HIV seropositivity status in pulmonary tuberculosis patients. During the year 1994-1997, 750 pulmo...

The correlation between resistance to pyrazinamide (PZA) and resistance to other first-line antituberculosis drugs was investigated in 395 Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated from clinical specimens, representing 14% of the overall number of M. tuberculosis isolates obtained between 2003 and 2008 at the laboratory of a referral university hospital for tuberculosis. A high correlation wa...

Tuberculosis (TB) disease occurs in every part of the world and large numbers of cases have been noted from all over the world. About one third of the population has TB infection and millions of people are dying every year. The disease is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) which usually attacks lungs but can infect other organs also. In the current situation, the major problem in treati...

Background: GABAergic drugs can modulate the rewarding properties of morphine. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of isoniazid, as a GABAergic agent, on the rewarding effects of morphine. Methods: Eighteen groups of female mice (eight per group) were used in a conditioned place preference (CPP) study. On the conditioning phase of the CPP p...

Background: Isoniazid is an important drug in first line of treating the tuberculosis disease. This drug can lead to damages in different parts of the body such as liver and testis. Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium are the probiotics that have the important innate property that inhibit from passing of Isoniazid into the blood-testis-barrier. In point of spermatogenesis indexes whic...