"The bacteria that cause TB need to synthesize alpha glucans," notes Dr. Jacobs. "And from the bacterial point of view, you can't knock out both of these alpha glucan pathways simultaneously or you're dead. So if we were to make drugs against GlgE and Rv3032, the combination would be extremely potent. And since TB bacteria need both of those alpha glucan pathways to live, it's very unlikely that this combination therapy would leave behind surviving bacteria that could develop into resistant strains."

Dr. Jacobs adds that findings from this study could also enhance treatment of diseases caused by other species of mycobacteria. Leprosy, for example, which still occurs in the U.S. and other countries, is caused by a mycobacterium related to TB. Treating leprosy now involves using several different drugs, some of which are also used to treat tuberculosis.

The group's paper, "Self-Poisoning of Mycobacterium tuberculosis by targeting GlgE in an a-glucan pathway," appears in the March 21 online edition of Nature Chemical Biology. In addition to Dr. Jacobs, other Einstein researchers involved in the study were Rainer Kalscheuer, Ph.D., Brian Weinrick, Ph.D., and Karolin E. Biermann, M.S. Other researchers include Karl Syson and Stephen Bornemann, John Innes Centre; Zhen Liu and James C. Sacchettini, Texas A&M University; and Usha Veeraraghavan and Gurdyal Besra; University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

Albert Einstein College of Medicine has filed a patent application on the discoveries described in the paper.

Source: Albert Einstein College of Medicine