Bedaquiline and Linezolid improve anti-TB treatment outcome in drug-resistant TB patients with HIV: A systematic review and meta-analysis

We aimed to assess the effect of second-line anti-TB treatment and determine which drugs can achieve the greatest clinical benefit for DR-TB-HIV patients by comparing multiple chemotherapy regimens, to provide a basis for evidence-based practice.We searched three electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science and Cochrane) for related English studies published since 2010. A random-effect model was used to estimate the pooled result for the treatment outcomes. Subgroup analysis based on possible factors, such as ART, baseline CD4 T-cell count, treatment regimens, and profiles of drug resistance, was also conducted to assess factors for favorable outcome. Outcomes were treatment success and mortality.38 studies, 40 cohorts with 9279 patients were included. The pooled treatment success, mortality, treatment failure, and default rates were 57.5 % (95 % CI 53.1-61.9), 21 % (95 % CI 17.8-24.6), 4.8 % (95 % CI 3.5-6.5), and 10.7 % (95 % CI 8.7-13.1), respectively, in patients with DR-TB and HIV co-infection. Subgroup analysis showed that BDQ and LZD based regimen, and ≥ 2 Group A drugs were associated with a higher treatment success rate. Besides, higher CD4 T-cell count at baseline was also correlated with higher treatment success rate, too.Suboptimal anti-TB outcomes underlining the need to expand the application of effective drugs and better regimen in high HIV setting. BDQ and LZD based all-oral regimen and early ART could contribute to higher treatment success, particularly among XDR-TB-HIV patients. Given that all included studies were observational, our findings emphasize the need for high-quality studies to further investigate the optimal treatment regimen for DR-TB-HIV.