Publications

Identification of 2-Amino Benzothiazoles with Bactericidal Activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Date Published: February 14, 2023
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…

Rifapentine With and Without Moxifloxacin for Pulmonary Tuberculosis in People With Human Immunodeficiency Virus (S31/A5349).

Date Published: February 8, 2023
Tuberculosis (TB) Trials Consortium Study 31/AIDS Clinical Trials Group A5349, an international randomized open-label phase 3 noninferiority trial showed that a 4-month daily regimen substituting rifapentine for rifampin and moxifloxacin for ethambutol had noninferior efficacy and was safe for the treatment of drug-susceptible pulmonary TB (DS-PTB) compared with the standard…

Advances in the design of combination therapies for the treatment of tuberculosis.

Date Published: January 28, 2023
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…

Standardized RS Ratio Metrics To Assess Tuberculosis Antimicrobial Efficacy and Potency.

Date Published: January 24, 2023
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…

Cyclic AMP-Mediated Inhibition of Cholesterol Catabolism in by the Novel Drug Candidate GSK2556286.

Date Published: January 24, 2023
Despite the deployment of combination tuberculosis (TB) chemotherapy, efforts to identify shorter, nonrelapsing treatments have resulted in limited success. Recent evidence indicates that GSK2556286 (GSK286), which acts via Rv1625c, a membrane-bound adenylyl cyclase in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, shortens treatment in rodents relative to standard of care drugs. Moreover, GSK286 can replace…

Nonhydrolyzable d‑phenylalanine-benzoxazole derivatives retain antitubercular activity.

Date Published: January 15, 2023
The emergence of drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, demands the development of new drugs and new drug targets. We have recently reported that the d-phenylalanine benzoxazole Q112 has potent antibacterial activity against this pathogen with a distinct mechanism of action from other antimycobacterial agents. Q112 and…

Transcriptional Biomarkers of Differentially Detectable Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Patient Sputum.

Date Published: December 20, 2022
Certain populations of Mycobacterium tuberculosis go undetected by standard diagnostics but can be enumerated using limiting dilution assays. These differentially detectable M. tuberculosis (DD M. tuberculosis) populations may have relevance for persistence due to their drug tolerance. It is unclear how well DD M. tuberculosis from patients is modeled by…
Courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine