Type II pneumocytes in the evaluation of drug antimycobacterial activity.

In order to combat the worldwide increase in the prevalence of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and Mycobacterium avium complex infections, a number of new antimycobacterial drugs has been synthesised and developed. There is great promise for drugs designed by new strategies, especially those based on the information on mycobacterial genome sequences and a host-parasite relationship. Moreover, the development of new protocols for chemotherapy of intractable mycobacterioses is also needed. For this purpose, better in vitro drug activity assay models that enable prediction of therapeutic activity, particularly those predicting the in vivo sterilising activity, are urgently needed, since the ordinary in vitro methods are inefficient indicators of clinical efficacy. In this context, the in vitro models using Type II pneumocytes, which play an important role in the establishment of mycobacterial pulmonary infections as a portal of mycobacterial organisms to the lungs, are considerably useful, especially in predicting the in vivo activity of certain drugs against Mycobacterium avium complex infection.