Eight hundred and fifty-six strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from previously untreated patients with pulmonary tuberculosis from various states in West Malaysia were studied during the period 1984 to 1987. All the strains were tested for in vitro susceptibility to the anti-tuberculosis drugs isoniazid (INH), streptomycin (SM), rifampicin (RMP) and ethambutol (ETB). One hundred and twenty-one of the isolates (14.18%) were resistant to 1 drug while 17 (1.97%) were resistant to 2 drugs. No strain was found to be resistant to more than 2 drugs. The prevalence of primary resistance to INH was 4.20%, SM was 7.59%, RMP was 0.95% and ETB was 1.44%. In 1.86% of isolates, resistance was noted to both INH and SM, while 0.11% were resistant to both RMP and ETB. There was no significant difference in distribution of resistant bacilli between the sexes (p > 0.01).
Tuberculosis (TB) is a dreadful bacterial disease, infecting millions of human and cattle every year worldwide. More than 50 years after its discovery, ethambutol continues to be an effective part of the World Health Organization's recommended frontline chemotherapy against TB. However, the lengthy treatment regimens consisting of a cocktail of antibiotics affect patient compliance. There is an urgent need to improve the current therapy so as to reduce treatment duration and dosing frequency. In this study, we have designed a novel anti-TB multifunctional formulation by fabricating graphene oxide with iron oxide magnetite nanoparticles serving as a nano-carrier on to which ethambutol was successfully loaded. The designed nanoformulation was characterised using various analytical techniques. The release of ethambutol from anti-TB multifunctional nanoparticles formulation was found to be sustained over a significantly longer period of time in phosphate buffer saline solution at two physiological pH (7.4 and 4.8). Furthermore, the nano-formulation showed potent anti-tubercular activity while remaining non-toxic to the eukaryotic cells tested. The results of this in vitro evaluation of the newly designed nano-formulation endorse its further development in vivo.