Publications

Novel Pyrimidines as Antitubercular Agents.

Date Published: March 23, 2018
infection is responsible for a global pandemic. New drugs are needed that do not show cross-resistance with the existing front-line therapeutics. A triazine antitubercular hit led to the design of a related pyrimidine family. The synthesis of a focused series of these analogs facilitated exploration of their activity, cytotoxicity,…

TnSeq of Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates reveals strain-specific antibiotic liabilities.

Date Published: March 5, 2018
Once considered a phenotypically monomorphic bacterium, there is a growing body of work demonstrating heterogeneity among Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) strains in clinically relevant characteristics, including virulence and response to antibiotics. However, the genetic and molecular basis for most phenotypic differences among Mtb strains remains unknown. To investigate the basis of…

Evaluation of a synthetic peptide for the detection of anti-Mycobacterium tuberculosis curli pili IgG antibodies in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.

Date Published: March 3, 2018
Tuberculosis (TB) remains a serious threat in underdeveloped areas. Mycobacterium tuberculosis curli pili (MTP), a virulence factor, is a potential biomarker for a reliable point of care (POC) test and was evaluated for its ability to react with Immunoglobulin G (IgG) in TB patients. An MTP synthetic peptide in a…

Cholesterol and fatty acids grease the wheels of Mycobacterium tuberculosis pathogenesis.

Date Published: March 1, 2018
Tuberculosis is a distinctive disease in which the causative agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, can persist in humans for decades by avoiding clearance from host immunity. During infection, M. tuberculosis maintains viability by extracting and utilizing essential nutrients from the host, and this is a prerequisite for all of the pathogenic activities…

Extreme Drug Tolerance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Caseum.

Date Published: February 25, 2018
Tuberculosis (TB) recently became the leading infectious cause of death in adults, while attempts to shorten therapy have largely failed. Dormancy, persistence, and drug tolerance are among the factors driving the long therapy duration. Assays to measure drug susceptibility of bacteria in pulmonary lesions are needed if we are to…

In vivo potent BM635 analogue with improved drug-like properties.

Date Published: February 10, 2018
BM635 is the hit compound of a promising anti-TB compound class. Herein we report systematic variations around the central pyrrole core of BM635 and we describe the design, synthesis, biological evaluation, pharmacokinetic analysis, as well as in vivo TB mouse efficacy studies of novel BM635 analogues that show improved physicochemical properties.

Clofazimine protects against Mycobacterium tuberculosis dissemination in the central nervous system following aerosol challenge in a murine model.

Date Published: January 24, 2018
Tuberculosis (TB) has been the scourge of the human race for many decades, claiming countless number of lives. This is further complicated by the ability of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to infect extrapulmonary sites, specifically the brain. These extrapulmonary forms of TB are difficult to treat owing to problems associated with drug…
Courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine