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(MAC/MAI) Mycobacterium Avium Complex Pulmonary Disease: Join us
MAC & Bronchiectasis | Last Active: Oct 29 5:15pm | Replies (9350)Comment receiving replies
Thank you so much for this extremely informative post. I believe the lipisomes in Arikayce are intended to pierce the biofilm so that the amikaycin can get in.
My lungs are fragile and do not like anything foreign inhaled into them so I had a hard time doing Arikayce and created an imagery that helped.
With every inhale, I pictured the milky substance aerosolized had thousands of warriors running into my airways. The warriors were Roman gladiators or Vikings, huge, brawny, hairy men wearing metal breastplate and helmets and carrying weapons, including assault weapons. As they ran, thousands of male voices shouted, "KILL! KILL! KILL!"
The warriors were stopped by a wall. I knew that mycobacteria had some kind of protective shell but I know now it is biofilm. As they approached the biofilm, a small pack on each of their backs opened and a tiny female sprite flew out. The sprites were Tinkerbells but instead of wands, they carried spears. They thrilled loudly above the shouts of "kill" from the men. Quickly they flew to the biofilm and pierced it with their spears and the warriors drew their weapons and ran in killing mycobacteria left and right.
Next inhale.
Replies to "Thank you so much for this extremely informative post. I believe the lipisomes in Arikayce are..."
@rits Hi Rita -- hey I'm with you! I hope the Arikayce helps me too.
Yes Arikayce and Azithromycin have been shown to get into the outer layers of NTM biofilms, in certain circumstances -- but quite often they can't get all the way into the biofilms as well. Even Rifampin can sometimes 'shrink' the biofilm a bit too. But these NTM drugs are not really anti-biofilm drugs -- and they were not designed to be.
In the recent past, research on liposomal -- and even smaller nano-particle -- drugs has been showing more promise than the old drugs for NTMs. It's likely that some of these new drugs will have a better chance of getting further into biofilms because they're so small and inhaled into the lung, but these aren't actually anti-biofilm drugs either.
Also, any potential new drugs could be years off yet. (Good things are meant to come to those who wait -- but maybe we should shout louder, not just patiently wait!)
That said, I hope the inhaled Arikayce helps me and you both -- and soon.
Good luck to all of us!
Annie
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@rits Love your mental imagery! I, too, have done the same thing in my head but not in the great detail that you have!! Go warriors!! Get through that biofilm! Nan