Target product profiles: tests for tuberculosis treatment monitoring and optimization.

The World Health Organization has developed target product profiles containing minimum and optimum targets for key characteristics for tests for tuberculosis treatment monitoring and optimization. Tuberculosis treatment optimization refers to initiating or switching to an effective tuberculosis treatment regimen that results in a high likelihood of a good treatment outcome. The target product profiles also cover tests of cure conducted at the end of treatment. The development of the target product profiles was informed by a stakeholder survey, a cost-effectiveness analysis and a patient-care pathway analysis. Additional feedback from stakeholders was obtained by means of a Delphi-like process, a technical consultation and a call for public comment on a draft document. A scientific development group agreed on the final targets in a consensus meeting. For characteristics rated of highest importance, the document lists: (i) high diagnostic accuracy (sensitivity and specificity); (ii) time to result of optimally ≤ 2 hours and no more than 1 day; (iii) required sample type to be minimally invasive, easily obtainable, such as urine, breath, or capillary blood, or a respiratory sample that goes beyond sputum; (iv) ideally the test could be placed at a peripheral-level health facility without a laboratory; and (v) the test should be affordable to low- and middle-income countries, and allow wide and equitable access and scale-up. Use of these target product profiles should facilitate the development of new tuberculosis treatment monitoring and optimization tests that are accurate and accessible for all people being treated for tuberculosis.

L'Organisation mondiale de la santé a élaboré des profils de produits cibles contenant des cibles minimales et optimales pour les caractéristiques principales des essais destinés au suivi et à l'optimisation du traitement de la tuberculose. L'optimisation du traitement de la tuberculose fait référence à l'instauration d'un régime de traitement efficace de la tuberculose ou à l'adoption d'un tel régime, avec une probabilité élevée d'obtenir de bons résultats thérapeutiques. Les profils de produits cibles couvrent également les essais de guérison effectués à l'issue du traitement. Les profils de produits cibles ont été élaborés sur la base d'un sondage auprès des parties prenantes, d'une analyse coût-efficacité et d'une analyse du parcours de soins du patient. Des retours supplémentaires des parties prenantes ont été obtenus au moyen d'un processus créé selon la méthode Delphi, d'une consultation technique et d'un appel à commentaires publics sur un projet de document. Un groupe d'élaboration scientifique s'est mis d'accord sur les objectifs finaux lors d'une réunion de concertation. En ce qui concerne les caractéristiques jugées les plus importantes, le document énumère ce qui suit: (i) une grande précision diagnostique (sensibilité et spécificité); (ii) un délai idéal d'obtention des résultats ≤ 2 heures et au maximum de 1 jour; (iii) le type d'échantillon requis doit être peu invasif et facile à obtenir, comme l'urine, l'haleine ou le sang capillaire, ou bien un échantillon respiratoire au-delà des expectorations; (iv) idéalement, l'essai pourrait avoir lieu dans un établissement de santé périphérique sans laboratoire ; et (v) l'essai devrait être abordable pour les pays à revenu faible et intermédiaire et permettre un accès large et équitable ainsi qu'une mise à l'échelle. L'utilisation de ces profils de produits cibles devrait faciliter la mise au point de nouveaux essais de surveillance et d'optimisation du traitement de la tuberculose qui soient précis et accessibles à toutes les personnes suivant un traitement pour la tuberculose.

La Organización Mundial de la Salud ha elaborado perfiles de productos objetivo que contienen objetivos mínimos y óptimos para las características principales de las pruebas de seguimiento y optimización del tratamiento de la tuberculosis. La optimización del tratamiento de la tuberculosis consiste en iniciar o cambiar a un régimen eficaz de tratamiento de la tuberculosis que ofrezca una alta probabilidad de un buen resultado terapéutico. Los perfiles de productos objetivo también abarcan las pruebas de curación realizadas al final del tratamiento. La elaboración de los perfiles de los productos objetivo se basó en una encuesta a las partes interesadas, un análisis de rentabilidad y un análisis de la vía de atención al paciente. Se obtuvo información adicional de las partes interesadas mediante un proceso tipo Delphi, una consulta técnica y una convocatoria de comentarios públicos sobre un borrador del documento. Un grupo de desarrollo científico acordó los objetivos finales en una reunión de consenso. Para las características clasificadas de mayor importancia, el documento enumera: (i) alta precisión diagnóstica (sensibilidad y especificidad); (ii) tiempo hasta el resultado de óptimamente ≤ 2 horas y no más de 1 día; (iii) el tipo de muestra requerida debe ser mínimamente invasiva, fácil de obtener, como orina, aliento o sangre capilar, o una muestra respiratoria que vaya más allá del esputo; (iv) idealmente la prueba podría realizarse en un centro sanitario periférico sin laboratorio; y (v) la prueba debe ser asequible para los países de ingresos bajos y medios y permitir un acceso amplio y equitativo y su expansión. El uso de estos perfiles de producto objetivo debería facilitar el desarrollo de pruebas nuevas de seguimiento y optimización del tratamiento de la tuberculosis que sean precisas y accesibles para todas las personas que reciben tratamiento antituberculoso.

Hollow-fibre system model of tuberculosis reproducibility and performance specifications for best practice in drug and combination therapy development.

BACKGROUND: The hollow-fibre system model of tuberculosis (HFS-TB) has been endorsed by regulators; however, application of HFS-TB requires a thorough understanding of intra- and inter-team variability, statistical power and quality controls. METHODS: Three teams evaluated regimens matching those in the Rapid Evaluation of Moxifloxacin in Tuberculosis (REMoxTB) study, plus two high-dose rifampicin/pyrazinamide/moxifloxacin regimens, administered daily for up to 28 or 56 days against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) under log-phase growth, intracellular growth or semidormant growth under acidic conditions. Target inoculum and pharmacokinetic parameters were pre-specified, and the accuracy and bias at achieving these calculated using percent coefficient of variation (%CV) at each sampling point and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). RESULTS: A total of 10 530 individual drug concentrations, and 1026 individual cfu counts were measured. The accuracy in achieving intended inoculum was >98%, and >88% for pharmacokinetic exposures. The 95% CI for the bias crossed zero in all cases. ANOVA revealed that the team effect accounted for <1% of variation in log10 cfu/mL at each timepoint. The %CV in kill slopes for each regimen and different Mtb metabolic populations was 5.10% (95% CI: 3.36%-6.85%). All REMoxTB arms exhibited nearly identical kill slopes whereas high dose regimens were 33% faster. Sample size analysis revealed that at least three replicate HFS-TB units are needed to identify >20% difference in slope, with a power of >99%. CONCLUSIONS: HFS-TB is a highly tractable tool for choosing combination regimens with little variability between teams, and between replicates.

Translating Authentic Nursing Knowledge From One Era to Another.

As time passes, concepts change. The risk to nursing theories is that concepts can shift so far away from a theorist's originally intended meaning that future scholars might misunderstand or misuse what will become historically time-bound theories. To preserve authentic nursing knowledge, the process of conceptual matching and translation is proposed. Two thought experiments are used to demonstrate conceptual translation.

Sputum lipoarabinomannan (LAM) as a biomarker to determine sputum mycobacterial load: exploratory and model-based analyses of integrated data from four cohorts.

BACKGROUND: Despite the high global disease burden of tuberculosis (TB), the disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection, novel treatments remain an urgent medical need. Development efforts continue to be hampered by the reliance on culture-based methods, which often take weeks to obtain due to the slow growth rate of Mtb. The availability of a "real-time" measure of treatment efficacy could accelerate TB drug development. Sputum lipoarabinomannan (LAM; an Mtb cell wall glycolipid) has promise as a pharmacodynamic biomarker of mycobacterial sputum load. METHODS: The present analysis evaluates LAM as a surrogate for Mtb burden in the sputum samples from 4 cohorts of a total of 776 participants. These include those from 2 cohorts of 558 non-TB and TB participants prior to the initiation of treatment (558 sputum samples), 1 cohort of 178 TB patients under a 14-day bactericidal activity trial with various mono- or multi-TB drug therapies, and 1 cohort of 40 TB patients with data from the first 56-day treatment of a standard 4-drug regimen. RESULTS: Regression analysis demonstrated that LAM was a predictor of colony-forming unit (CFU)/mL values obtained from the 14-day treatment cohort, with well-estimated model parameters (relative standard error ≤ 22.2%). Moreover, no changes in the relationship between LAM and CFU/mL were observed across the different treatments, suggesting that sputum LAM can be used to reasonably estimate the CFU/mL in the presence of treatment. The integrated analysis showed that sputum LAM also appears to be as good a predictor of time to Mycobacteria Growth Incubator Tube (MGIT) positivity as CFU/mL. As a binary readout, sputum LAM positivity is a strong predictor of solid media or MGIT culture positivity with an area-under-the-curve value of 0.979 and 0.976, respectively, from receiver-operator curve analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that sputum LAM performs as a pharmacodynamic biomarker for rapid measurement of Mtb burden in sputum, and thereby may enable more efficient early phase clinical trial designs (e.g., adaptive designs) to compare candidate anti-TB regimens and streamline dose selection for use in pivotal trials. Trial registration NexGen EBA study (NCT02371681).

Model-Based Meta-Analysis of Relapsing Mouse Model Studies from the Critical Path to Tuberculosis Drug Regimens Initiative Database.

Tuberculosis (TB), the disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), remains a leading infectious disease-related cause of death worldwide, necessitating the development of new and improved treatment regimens. Nonclinical evaluation of candidate drug combinations via the relapsing mouse model (RMM) is an important step in regimen development, through which candidate regimens that provide the greatest decrease in the probability of relapse following treatment in mice may be identified for further development. Although RMM studies are a critical tool to evaluate regimen efficacy, making comprehensive "apples to apples" comparisons of regimen performance in the RMM has been a challenge in large part due to the need to evaluate and adjust for variability across studies arising from differences in design and execution. To address this knowledge gap, we performed a model-based meta-analysis on data for 17 unique regimens obtained from a total of 1592 mice across 28 RMM studies. Specifically, a mixed-effects logistic regression model was developed that described the treatment duration-dependent probability of relapse for each regimen and identified relevant covariates contributing to interstudy variability. Using the model, covariate-normalized metrics of interest, namely, treatment duration required to reach 50% and 10% relapse probability, were derived and used to compare relative regimen performance. Overall, the model-based meta-analysis approach presented herein enabled cross-study comparison of efficacy in the RMM and provided a framework whereby data from emerging studies may be analyzed in the context of historical data to aid in selecting candidate drug combinations for clinical evaluation as TB drug regimens.

Model-Informed Drug Development for Anti-Infectives: State of the Art and Future.

Model-informed drug development (MIDD) has a long and rich history in infectious diseases. This review describes foundational principles of translational anti-infective pharmacology, including choice of appropriate measures of exposure and pharmacodynamic (PD) measures, patient subpopulations, and drug-drug interactions. Examples are presented for state-of-the-art, empiric, mechanistic, interdisciplinary, and real-world evidence MIDD applications in the development of antibacterials (review of minimum inhibitory concentration-based models, mechanism-based pharmacokinetic/PD (PK/PD) models, PK/PD models of resistance, and immune response), antifungals, antivirals, drugs for the treatment of global health infectious diseases, and medical countermeasures. The degree of adoption of MIDD practices across the infectious diseases field is also summarized. The future application of MIDD in infectious diseases will progress along two planes; "depth" and "breadth" of MIDD methods. "MIDD depth" refers to deeper incorporation of the specific pathogen biology and intrinsic and acquired-resistance mechanisms; host factors, such as immunologic response and infection site, to enable deeper interrogation of pharmacological impact on pathogen clearance; clinical outcome and emergence of resistance from a pathogen; and patient and population perspective. In particular, improved early assessment of the emergence of resistance potential will become a greater focus in MIDD, as this is poorly mitigated by current development approaches. "MIDD breadth" refers to greater adoption of model-centered approaches to anti-infective development. Specifically, this means how various MIDD approaches and translational tools can be integrated or connected in a systematic way that supports decision making by key stakeholders (sponsors, regulators, and payers) across the entire development pathway.

Author Correction: Integrating standardized whole genome sequence analysis with a global Mycobacterium tuberculosis antibiotic resistance knowledgebase.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Proposing Standards for Teaching Authentic Nursing Knowledge.

This article's purpose is to propose ideas about developing teaching standards for each of 4 learner levels that lead to 4 types of nursing practice. The learner levels and types of practice are undergraduate/basic practice, graduate/enhanced practice, doctor of nursing practice/translational practice, and research doctorate/knowledge development practice. Each learner level requires different content and different teaching strategies. Thus, teaching at each level requires different teaching standards. This article is written in separate parts. Each section develops necessary ideas to support a set of recommended teaching standards needed to teach authentic nursing theoretical thinking at each level of nursing education.

Duration of pretomanid/moxifloxacin/pyrazinamide therapy compared with standard therapy based on time-to-extinction mathematics.

OBJECTIVES: Animal models have suggested that the combination of pretomanid with pyrazinamide and moxifloxacin (PaMZ) may shorten TB therapy duration to 3-4 months. Here, we tested that in the hollow-fibre system model of TB (HFS-TB). METHODS: A series of HFS-TB experiments were performed to compare the kill rates of the PaMZ regimen with the standard three-drug combination therapy. HFS-TB experiments were performed with bacilli in log-phase growth treated for 28 days, intracellular bacilli treated daily for 28 days and semi-dormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis treated with daily therapy for 56 days for sterilizing effect. Next, time-to-extinction equations were employed, followed by morphism transformation and Latin hypercube sampling, to determine the proportion of patients who achieved a time to extinction of 3, 4 or 6 months with each regimen. RESULTS: Using linear regression, the HFS-TB sterilizing effect rates of the PaMZ regimen versus the standard-therapy regimen during the 56 days were 0.18 (95% credible interval=0.13-0.23) versus 0.15 (95% credible interval=0.08-0.21) log10 cfu/mL/day, compared with 0.16 (95% credible interval=0.13-0.18) versus 0.11 (95% credible interval=0.09-0.13) log10 cfu/mL/day in the Phase II clinical trial, respectively. Using time-to-extinction and Latin hypercube sampling modelling, the expected percentages of patients in which the PaMZ regimen would achieve sterilization were 40.37% (95% credible interval=39.1-41.34) and 72.30% (95% credible interval=71.41-73.17) at 3 and 4 months duration of therapy, respectively, versus 93.67% (95% credible interval=93.18-94.13) at 6 months for standard therapy. CONCLUSIONS: The kill rates of the PaMZ regimen were predicted to be insufficient to achieve cure in less than 6 months in most patients.

An Algorithmic Approach to Nutritional Difficulties in People With Developmental Disabilities.

With the increasing survival rate of people with developmental disabilities into adulthood and later life, nutritional support and feeding of these individuals frequently becomes a critical problem which must be addressed by their caregivers and healthcare providers. Problems surrounding mealtimes include difficulty with the mechanisms of feeding as well as medical complications including aspiration and gastrointestinal dysmotility. No comprehensive guidelines exist to aid caregivers and healthcare providers regarding the issues in feeding and nutrition in this population. We offer an algorithmic approach to the nutrition-related problems of aspiration, laborious meals and mealtime refusal, choosing the best route for tube feeding, and when to return patients with developmental disabilities back to oral feeding.

Using Motion Picture Films to Teach Nursing Theory in Graduate Nursing Education.

Teaching strategies that use pedagogy of inquiry and contextualization are needed to ensure that nursing students will be well prepared to manage increasingly complex patient information. The rationale for using motion pictures to teach theoretical thinking is explained, and an assignment that uses motion pictures is described. Film scene assignments facilitate learning theoretical thinking skills, reading clinical situations, and understanding how theory can be useful to problem-solve ambiguous clinical situations. Motion pictures present a text-in-motion that can be studied and analyzed in a repeatable, objective, and collaborative way.

Publisher Correction: A patient-level pooled analysis of treatment-shortening regimens for drug-susceptible pulmonary tuberculosis.

The version of this article originally published was not open access. This article should have been open access. The error has been fixed, and the article is now open access.

A patient-level pooled analysis of treatment-shortening regimens for drug-susceptible pulmonary tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis kills more people than any other infectious disease. Three pivotal trials testing 4-month regimens failed to meet non-inferiority margins; however, approximately four-fifths of participants were cured. Through a pooled analysis of patient-level data with external validation, we identify populations eligible for 4-month treatment, define phenotypes that are hard to treat and evaluate the impact of adherence and dosing strategy on outcomes. In 3,405 participants included in analyses, baseline smear grade of 3+ relative to <2+, HIV seropositivity and adherence of ≤90% were significant risk factors for unfavorable outcome. Four-month regimens were non-inferior in participants with minimal disease defined by <2+ sputum smear grade or non-cavitary disease. A hard-to-treat phenotype, defined by high smear grades and cavitation, may require durations >6 months to cure all. Regimen duration can be selected in order to improve outcomes, providing a stratified medicine approach as an alternative to the 'one-size-fits-all' treatment currently used worldwide.

Integrating standardized whole genome sequence analysis with a global Mycobacterium tuberculosis antibiotic resistance knowledgebase.

Drug-resistant tuberculosis poses a persistent public health threat. The ReSeqTB platform is a collaborative, curated knowledgebase, designed to standardize and aggregate global Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) variant data from whole genome sequencing (WGS) with phenotypic drug susceptibility testing (DST) and clinical data. We developed a unified analysis variant pipeline (UVP) ( https://github.com/CPTR-ReSeqTB/UVP ) to identify variants and assign lineage from MTBC sequence data. Stringent thresholds and quality control measures were incorporated in this open source tool. The pipeline was validated using a well-characterized dataset of 90 diverse MTBC isolates with conventional DST and DNA Sanger sequencing data. The UVP exhibited 98.9% agreement with the variants identified using Sanger sequencing and was 100% concordant with conventional methods of assigning lineage. We analyzed 4636 publicly available MTBC isolates in the ReSeqTB platform representing all seven major MTBC lineages. The variants detected have an above 94% accuracy of predicting drug based on the accompanying DST results in the platform. The aggregation of variants over time in the platform will establish confidence-graded mutations statistically associated with phenotypic drug resistance. These tools serve as critical reference standards for future molecular diagnostic assay developers, researchers, public health agencies and clinicians working towards the control of drug-resistant tuberculosis.