Publications

High-resolution mapping of fluoroquinolones in TB rabbit lesions reveals specific distribution in immune cell types.

Date Published: November 14, 2018
Understanding the distribution patterns of antibiotics at the site of infection is paramount to selecting adequate drug regimens and developing new antibiotics. Tuberculosis (TB) lung lesions are made of various immune cell types, some of which harbor persistent forms of the pathogen, . By combining high resolution MALDI MSI with…

Host Directed Therapy for Chronic Tuberculosis via Intrapulmonary Delivery of Aerosolized Peptide Inhibitors Targeting the IL-10-STAT3 Pathway.

Date Published: November 9, 2018
Here we demonstrate that aerosols of host directed therapies [HDT] administered during a chronic Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection have bactericidal effect. The pulmonary bacterial load of C57BL/6 mice chronically infected with Mtb was reduced by 1.7 and 0.6 logCFU after two weeks of treatment via aerosol delivery with ST3-H2A2, [a…

The present state of the tuberculosis drug development pipeline.

Date Published: October 23, 2018
Tuberculosis now ranks as the leading cause of death in the world due to a single infectious agent. Current standard of care treatment can achieve very high cure rates for drug-sensitive disease but requires a 6-month duration of chemotherapy. Drug-resistant disease requires significantly longer treatment durations with drugs associated with…

Pharmacokinetics of β-Lactam Antibiotics: Clues from the Past To Help Discover Long-Acting Oral Drugs in the Future.

Date Published: October 12, 2018
β-Lactams represent perhaps the most important class of antibiotics yet discovered. However, despite many years of active research, none of the currently approved drugs in this class combine oral activity with long duration of action. Recent developments suggest that new β-lactam antibiotics with such a profile would have utility in…

Prediction of Susceptibility to First-Line Tuberculosis Drugs by DNA Sequencing.

Date Published: October 11, 2018
The World Health Organization recommends drug-susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex for all patients with tuberculosis to guide treatment decisions and improve outcomes. Whether DNA sequencing can be used to accurately predict profiles of susceptibility to first-line antituberculosis drugs has not been clear.

Storage lipid studies in tuberculosis reveal that foam cell biogenesis is disease-specific.

Date Published: August 30, 2018
Foam cells are lipid-laden macrophages that contribute to the inflammation and tissue damage associated with many chronic inflammatory disorders. Although foam cell biogenesis has been extensively studied in atherosclerosis, how these cells form during a chronic infectious disease such as tuberculosis is unknown. Here we report that, unlike the cholesterol-laden…

Enhanced Permeability and Retention-like Extravasation of Nanoparticles from the Vasculature into Tuberculosis Granulomas in Zebrafish and Mouse Models.

Date Published: August 28, 2018
The enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect is the only described mechanism enabling nanoparticles (NPs) flowing in blood to reach tumors by a passive targeting mechanism. Here, using the transparent zebrafish model infected with Mycobacterium marinum we show that an EPR-like process also occurs allowing different types of NPs to…
Courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine