Publications

Nutrition, Inflammation, and the Gut Microbiota among Outpatients with Active Tuberculosis Disease in India.

Date Published: October 18, 2021
India has the highest rates of tuberculosis (TB) globally and a high prevalence of malnutrition; however, the interplay between host nutritional status, inflammation, and the gut microbiome in active tuberculosis disease (ATBD) is less well-studied. We examined differences in gut microbial composition and diversity based on undernutrition and inflammation status…

Preclinical Evaluation of Inhalational Spectinamide-1599 Therapy against Tuberculosis.

Date Published: October 8, 2021
The lengthy treatment time for tuberculosis (TB) is a primary cause for the emergence of multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). One approach to improve TB therapy is to develop an inhalational TB therapy that when administered in combination with oral TB drugs eases and shortens treatment. Spectinamides are new semisynthetic analogues…

Lesion Penetration and Activity Limit the Utility of Second-Line Injectable Agents in Pulmonary Tuberculosis.

Date Published: September 17, 2021
Amikacin and kanamycin are second-line injectables used in the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) based on the clinical utility of streptomycin, another aminoglycoside and first-line anti-TB drug. While streptomycin was tested as a single agent in the first controlled TB clinical trial, introduction of amikacin and kanamycin into MDR-TB regimens…

Single cell analysis of M. tuberculosis phenotype and macrophage lineages in the infected lung.

Date Published: September 6, 2021
In this study, we detail a novel approach that combines bacterial fitness fluorescent reporter strains with scRNA-seq to simultaneously acquire the host transcriptome, surface marker expression, and bacterial phenotype for each infected cell. This approach facilitates the dissection of the functional heterogeneity of M. tuberculosis-infected alveolar (AMs) and interstitial macrophages…

Genetic models of latent tuberculosis in mice reveal differential influence of adaptive immunity.

Date Published: September 6, 2021
Studying latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection has been limited by the lack of a suitable mouse model. We discovered that transient depletion of biotin protein ligase (BPL) and thioredoxin reductase (TrxB2) results in latent infections during which Mtb cannot be detected but that relapse in a subset of mice. The…

Pharmacokinetics and Target Attainment of SQ109 in Plasma and Human-Like Tuberculosis Lesions in Rabbits.

Date Published: August 17, 2021
SQ109 is a novel well-tolerated drug candidate in clinical development for the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). It is the only inhibitor of the MmpL3 mycolic acid transporter in clinical development. No SQ109-resistant mutant has been directly isolated thus far , in mice, or in patients, which is tentatively attributed…

Structure, Detection, and Antibacterial Activity of Metabolites of SQ109, an Anti-Infective Drug Candidate.

Date Published: August 13, 2021
SQ109 is a drug candidate for the treatment of tuberculosis (TB). It is thought to target primarily the protein MmpL3 in , but it also inhibits the growth of some other bacteria. SQ109 is metabolized by the liver, and it has been proposed that some of its metabolites might be…
Courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine