Notice: Users may be experiencing issues with displaying some pages on stanfordhealthcare.org. We are working closely with our technical teams to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience.
 

Learn about the flu shot, COVID-19 vaccine, and our masking policy »

Stanford Health Care

The competitive cost of antibiotic resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis SCIENCE Gagneux, S., Long, C. D., Small, P. M., Van, T., Schoolnik, G. K., Bohannan, B. J. 2006; 312 (5782): 1944-1946

Abstract

Mathematical models predict that the future of the multidrug-resistant tuberculosis epidemic will depend on the fitness cost of drug resistance. We show that in laboratory-derived mutants of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, rifampin resistance is universally associated with a competitive fitness cost and that this cost is determined by the specific resistance mutation and strain genetic background. In contrast, we demonstrate that prolonged patient treatment can result in multidrug-resistant strains with no fitness defect and that strains with low- or no-cost resistance mutations are also the most frequent among clinical isolates.

View details for DOI 10.1126/science.1124410

View details for PubMedID 16809538