MONITORING OF DRUG EFFECTS ON CULTIVABLE MYCOBACTERIA AND MYCOBACTERIUM-LEPRAE VIA THE DETERMINATION OF THEIR ADENYLATE ENERGY CHARGES (AEC)

The adenylate energy charges (AEC) of M. smegmatis, M. tuberculosis an d M. leprae were determined for untreated and drug-treated bacterial s ample. AEC values of the cultivable mycobacteria ranged between 0.66-0 .71 in exponentially growing cultures and decreased below 0.1 under th e influence of various drugs and drug combinations depending on concen tration. AEC values of M. leprae samples isolated from different armad illo tissues and from untreated multibacillary leprosy patients were s ignificantly lower (0.32-0.52). For M. leprae isolated from patients a fter three months of effective multidrug therapy bacterial impairment could be monitored with this technique. For differently treated cultur es of M. smegmatis and M. tuberculosis, a linear correlation between A EC and viability as derived from the mass spectrometric analysis of th e intrabacterial sodium to potassium ratio of single bacterial organis ms was established within a certain AEC range. The range in which AEC is linearly correlated with viability, however, was found to be depend ent on the mode of drug action and the bacterial species.