Publications

As a facultative intracellular pathogen, M. tuberculosis (Mtb) is highly adapted to evading antibacterial mechanisms in phagocytic cells. Both the macrophage and pathogen experience transcriptional and metabolic changes from the onset of phagocytosis. To account for this interaction in the assessment of intracellular drug susceptibility, we allowed a 3-day preadaptation…

The electron transport chain (ETC) in the cell membrane consists of a series of redox complexes that transfer electrons from electron donors to acceptors and couples this electron transfer with the transfer of protons (H) across a membrane. This process generates proton motive force which is used to produce ATP…

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. To date, the mainstay of vaccination involves the use of Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), a live-attenuated vaccine that confers protection against extrapulmonary disease in infants and children but not against lung disease. Thus, there is an urgent need…

Cyclic AMP (cAMP) is a ubiquitous second messenger that transduces signals from cellular receptors to downstream effectors. (Mtb), the etiological agent of tuberculosis, devotes a considerable amount of coding capacity to produce, sense, and degrade cAMP. Despite this fact, our understanding of how cAMP regulates Mtb physiology remains limited. Here,…

We identified an amino-benzothiazole scaffold from a whole-cell screen against recombinant Mycobacterium tuberculosis under expressing the essential signal peptidase LepB. The seed molecule had 2-fold higher activity against the LepB hypomorph. Through a combination of purchase and chemical synthesis, we explored the structure-activity relationship for this series; 34 analogs were…

Tuberculosis requires lengthy multi-drug therapy. occupies different tissue compartments during infection, making drug access and susceptibility patterns variable. Antibiotic combinations are needed to ensure each compartment of infection is reached with effective drug treatment. Despite drug combinations’ role in treating tuberculosis, the design of such combinations has been tackled relatively…

The sigmoid E model was used to describe the rRNA synthesis ratio (RS ratio) response of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to antimicrobial concentration. RS-E measures the maximal ability of a drug to inhibit the RS ratio and can be used to rank-order drugs based on their RS ratio effect. RS-EC is the…