New All-Oral Short-term Regimen for Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis: A Semi-randomized Controlled Trial Conducted in China.

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of an all-oral short-term regimen for treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

Methods: In this semirandomized, controlled, multicenter clinical study, patients with MDR-TB who were sensitive to fluoroquinolones were assigned to treatment groups at enrollment. Patients were assigned to group C (4-6 months: bedaquiline + linezolid + clofazimine + moxifloxacin + cycloserine; 5 months: clofazimine + moxifloxacin + cycloserine) unless this protocol was unsuitable or unacceptable, in which case they were randomly assigned to group A (4-6 months: isoniazid + ethambutol + pyrazinamide + protionamide + amikacin + clofazimine + moxifloxacin; 5 months: ethambutol + pyrazinamide + clofazimine + moxifloxacin) or group B (4-6 months: isoniazid + ethambutol + pyrazinamide + protionamide + linezolid + clofazimine + moxifloxacin; 5 months: ethambutol + pyrazinamide + clofazimine + moxifloxacin).

Value of serum cytokine biomarkers TNF-α, IL-4, sIL-2R and IFN-γ for use in monitoring bacterial load and anti-tuberculosis treatment progress.

Tuberculosis (TB) patient serum cytokine levels may be predictive of anti-tuberculosis treatment progress. Here, serum levels of cytokines TNF-α, IL-4, sIL-2R and IFN-γ were measured then correlated to clinical TB manifestations, bacterial burden, chest imaging findings and clinical course. Study subjects included 67 newly diagnosed pulmonary TB (PTB) patients with active disease admitted to Beijing Chest Hospital for anti-TB chemotherapeutic treatment.