Vol.65 No.1 January 2017
Immunoadjunctive therapy for mycobacterial infections based on host macrophage functions
1)Department of Education for Children, Yasuda Women's University, 6-13-1 Yasuhigashi, Asaminami-ku, Hiroshima, Japan
2)Shimane University School of Medicine
3)Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, International University of Health and Welfare
4)Department of Nutrition Administration, Yasuda Women's University
5)Faculty of Home Economics, Kobe Women's University
6)Department of Community Medicine Management, Shimane University School of Medicine
Abstract
New antimycobacterial drugs are urgently required to cope with the high incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in developing countries, the resurgence of TB in industrialized countries, the increase in drug-resistant TB, and the global increase in the prevalence of Mycobacterium avium complex infections in immunocompromised hosts. However, the development of such antimicrobial chemotherapeutics is currently making very slow progress, even with the use of a bioinformatics-based methodology for drug design. Therefore, devising improved administration protocols for clinical treatment against refractory mycobacteriosis using existing chemotherapeutic agents appears to be more practical than awaiting the development of novel antimycobacterial drugs. Host-directed therapeutics (HDTs) are expected to increase the efficacy of antimycobacterial regimens against mycobacteriosis. Particularly, the up-regulation of host immunity relating to macrophage antimicrobial functions may be beneficial to immunoadjunctive therapy. This review will deal with the current status regarding the development of promising HDTs that are expected to be useful for the clinical management of mycobacterial infections.
Key word
immunoadjunctive therapy, host-directed therapeutics, macrophage, mycobacterial infection
Received
September 8, 2016
Accepted
September 28, 2016
Jpn. J. Chemother. 65 (1): 10-16, 2017
