Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Natalie Ann Lozano-Huntelman, April Zhou, Elif Tekin, Mauricio Cruz-Loya, Bjorn Ostman, Sada Boyd, Van M. Savage, Pamela Yeh
Summary: The rapid rise of multi-drug resistant bacteria has highlighted the importance of multi-drug combination treatments, but some combinations can actually result in bacteria growing faster than when treated with a single drug. This study found that the majority of drug combinations examined contained hidden suppression effects, emphasizing the need to understand higher-order interactions for predicting antibiotic resistance evolution under multi-drug treatments.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Alessia Ruggiero, Han-Gyu Choi, Giovanni Barra, Flavia Squeglia, Young Woo Back, Hwa-Jung Kim, Rita Berisio
Summary: The HtpG(Mtb) protein in tuberculosis vaccines is a dimeric nucleotide-binding protein with antigenic properties. The immune response is mainly elicited by the C-terminal and middle domains of the protein. This information can be used to design more stable, easily produced, and effective vaccine antigens.
FRONTIERS IN MOLECULAR BIOSCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Zackery P. Bulman, Xing Tan, Ting-Yu Chu, Yanqin Huang, Amisha P. Rana, Nidhi Singh, Stephanie A. Flowers, Yasuhiro Kyono, Barry N. Kreiswirth, Liang Chen
Summary: The combination of carbapenem resistance and hypervirulence in Klebsiella pneumoniae poses an emerging and urgent threat. Transcriptomic analysis suggests that altered transcription of multiple key pathways contributes to antibiotic tolerance in carbapenem-resistant K. pneumoniae with hypervirulence plasmids.
COMPUTATIONAL AND STRUCTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY JOURNAL
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
Joao P. Pais, Olha Antoniuk, Raquel Freire, David Pires, Emilia Valente, Elsa Anes, Luis Constantino
Summary: In this study, a library of 72 derivatives of nitrobenzoic acid containing esters and thioesters of benzoates was synthesized and evaluated for their antimycobacterial activity against M. tuberculosis. The results showed that compounds with aromatic nitro substitutions, especially 3,5-dinitro esters, exhibited the most potent antimicrobial activity. Interestingly, the activity of the nitro derivatives was not correlated with their pKa values or hydrolysis rates. These findings suggest that the nitrobenzoate scaffold, particularly the 3,5-dinitrobenzoate scaffold, has the potential to serve as a promising scaffold for the development of novel antimycobacterial agents with improved activity.
Review
Cell Biology
Maria Romano, Flavia Squeglia, Eliza Kramarska, Giovanni Barra, Han-Gyu Choi, Hwa-Jung Kim, Alessia Ruggiero, Rita Berisio
Summary: Tuberculosis remains the leading infectious bacterial cause of death worldwide. Developing a new vaccine with better coverage than the current BCG vaccine is vital to stop its spread. Structural Vaccinology and the development of vaccine adjuvants can enhance the immunostimulating effects of subunit vaccines, accelerating the development of a safer and more effective tuberculosis vaccine.
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Abhilash Bhattacharjee, Sangita Sarma, Tejosmita Sen, Anil Kumar Singh
Summary: This review provides an overview of ongoing research on the genome and transcriptome of antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis. It explores the use of omics-based research to identify mutations and differential gene expression related to drug resistance. The study finds distinctive mutations in first- and second-line drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It also investigates the differences in expression of genes involved in fundamental cellular processes and their role in drug resistance. With the development of transcriptomics-based studies, new insights have been gained into gene expression changes in drug resistance. This information can be utilized to design the basic platform for anti-tuberculosis treatments and therapeutic approaches, and can be instrumental in disease diagnosis and global containment of resistant TB.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
Jansy P. Sarathy, Min Xie, Richard M. Jones, Adrienne Chang, Paulina Osiecki, Danielle Weiner, Wen-Shan Tsao, Maureen Dougher, Landry Blanc, Nader Fotouhi, Laura E. Via, Clifton E. Barry III, Iwijn De Vlaminck, David R. Sherman, Veronique A. Dartois
Summary: Caseous necrosis is a characteristic of tuberculosis (TB) and allows for the survival of drug-tolerant bacteria. We have developed a model that mimics the features of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in caseum, which can be used to identify compounds that could shorten the treatment duration.
Article
Biology
Andrew Wong, Tiago Beites, Kyle A. Planck, Rachael A. Fieweger, Kathryn A. Eckartt, Shuqi Li, Nicholas C. Poulton, Brian C. VanderVen, Kyu Y. Rhee, Dirk Schnappinger, Sabine Ehrt, Jeremy Rock
Summary: The study found that the rv3645 gene plays an important role in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, participating in cAMP signaling and fatty acid metabolism. The loss of rv3645 results in increased sensitivity of M. tuberculosis to multiple antibiotics, and its essential function in bacterial growth is only required in the presence of long-chain fatty acids. This research demonstrates the crucial physiological regulatory functions of rv3645 and cAMP in M. tuberculosis.
Article
Microbiology
Berta Puig-Collderram, Sandra Domene-Ochoa, Maria Salva-Comas, Maria Milagro Montero, Xavier Duran, Juan R. Gonzalez, Santiago Grau, Antonio Oliver, Juan P. Horcajada, Eduardo Padilla, Concepcion Segura, Nuria Prim
Summary: The study validated the use of an ATP assay as an alternative to the conventional colony count method for studying antibiotic combinations. The ATP assay was found to be equivalent to the colony count method in categorizing the effectiveness of antibiotic combinations. This method is less laborious and faster, making it suitable for implementation in clinical laboratory workflow.
MICROBIOLOGY SPECTRUM
(2022)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Muhammad Adil, Siyab Alam, Urooj Amin, Irfan Ullah, Mian Muhammad, Muti Ullah, Asma Rehman, Tariq Khan
Summary: Antibiotic-based silver nanoparticles exhibit significant changes in structural properties and antibacterial activities compared to the control.
Article
Chemistry, Medicinal
Prasanth Manohar, Madhav Madurantakam Royam, Belinda Loh, Bulent Bozdogan, Ramesh Nachimuthu, Sebastian Leptihn
Summary: The study demonstrates the potential of using phage-antibiotic combinations as an effective therapeutic strategy against infections caused by multidrug resistant bacteria.
ACS INFECTIOUS DISEASES
(2022)
Article
Chemistry, Medicinal
Marianna Stampolaki, Satish R. Malwal, Nadine Alvarez-Cabrera, Zijun Gao, Mohammad Moniruzzaman, Svitlana O. Babii, Nikolaos Naziris, Andre Rey-Cibati, Mariana Valladares-Delgado, Andreea L. Turcu, Kyung-Hwa Baek, Phan Trong-Nhat, Hyeryon Lee, Mattheo Alcaraz, Savannah Watson, Mariette van der Watt, Dina Coertzen, Natasa Efstathiou, Maria Chountoulesi, Carolyn M. Shoen, Ioannis P. Papanastasiou, Jose Brea, Michael H. Cynamon, Lyn-Marie Birkholtz, Laurent Kremer, Joo Hwan No, Santiago Vazquez, Gustavo Benaim, Costas Demetzos, Helen I. Zgurskaya, Thomas Dick, Eric Oldfield, Antonios D. Kolocouris
Summary: SQ109 is a potent tuberculosis drug candidate that inhibits MmpL3 transporter and cell wall biosynthesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It also shows activity against bacteria and protozoan parasites. In this study, 18 analogs of SQ109 were synthesized and tested against various microorganisms. Some analogs showed more activity than SQ109 against drug-resistant M. abscessus and P. falciparum. These analogs also exhibited low toxicity to human cells, making them potential antimalarial drug leads. Surface plasmon resonance and differential scanning calorimetry were used to study the binding of inhibitors to MmpL3 and lipid membranes, respectively.
ACS INFECTIOUS DISEASES
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Medicinal
Marianna Stampolaki, Satish R. Malwal, Nadine Alvarez-Cabrera, Zijun Gao, Mohammad Moniruzzaman, Svitlana O. Babii, Nikolaos Naziris, Andre Rey-Cibati, Mariana Valladares-Delgado, Andreea L. Turcu, Kyung-Hwa Baek, Trong-Nhat Phan, Hyeryon Lee, Mattheo Alcaraz, Savannah Watson, Mariette van der Watt, Dina Coertzen, Natasa Efstathiou, Maria Chountoulesi, Carolyn M. Shoen, Ioannis P. Papanastasiou, Jose Brea, Michael H. Cynamon, Lyn-Marie Birkholtz, Laurent Kremer, Joo Hwan No, Santiago Vazquez, Gustavo Benaim, Costas Demetzos, Helen I. Zgurskaya, Thomas Dick, Eric Oldfield, Antonios D. Kolocouris
Summary: SQ109 is a potent tuberculosis drug candidate that targets cell wall biosynthesis by inhibiting MmpL3 transporter. It also shows activity against bacteria and protozoan parasites. By synthesizing analogs of SQ109, higher activity against drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium abscessus and Plasmodium falciparum was found, making them potential new drug leads. Binding studies suggest that MmpL3 is not a major target in mycobacteria. Rating: 7/10.
ACS INFECTIOUS DISEASES
(2023)
Article
Mathematics, Applied
F. Casas, A. Escorihuela-Tomas
Summary: A new family of methods involving complex coefficients for the numerical integration of differential equations is presented and analyzed in this paper. These methods, constructed as linear combinations of symmetric-conjugate compositions, are suitable for differential equations with real vector fields, preserving time-symmetry and can be parallel implemented to improve efficiency. The integrators based on a 4th-order integrator up to order 10 are built and tested, showing their effectiveness in increasing the order of a basic scheme.
APPLIED MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTATION
(2022)
Article
Microbiology
Xiaoxia Liu, Rui Liu, Ruting Zhao, Jishi Wang, Yongyou Cheng, Qian Liu, Yanyun Wang, Shuming Yang
Summary: This study investigated the antimicrobial activity and interactions of natural antimicrobials. The results showed that thymol exhibited the strongest inhibitory activity against multidrug-resistant pathogens, and it had a good synergistic effect with carvacrol. The improved evaluation method used in this study provides an accurate and comprehensive means to assess the synergistic effects of natural antimicrobials.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2022)