Significance
Whereas most mycobacteria do not cause disease,
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
kills more than one million people each year. To better understand why
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
is virulent and to discover chemical markers of this pathogen, we compare its lipid profile with that of the attenuated but related mycobacterium,
Mycobacterium bovis
Bacillus Calmette–Guérin. This strategy identified a previously unknown
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
-specific lipid, 1-tuberculosinyladenosine, which is produced by the Rv3378c enzyme. The crystal structure of Rv3378c provides information supporting drug design to inhibit prenyl transfer. Discovery of 1-tuberculosinyladenosine provides insight into how
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
resists killing in macrophages and a new target for diagnosing tuberculosis disease.
意义
尽管大多数分枝杆菌不会引起疾病,但结核分枝杆菌每年仍会导致超过一百万人死亡。为了更好地了解为什么结核分枝杆菌具有毒力并发现这种病原体的化学标记,我们将其脂质谱与衰弱但相关的分枝杆菌——卡介苗分枝杆菌的脂质谱进行比较。这种策略发现了一个以前未知的结核分枝杆菌特异性脂质——1-结核菌素腺苷,它是由Rv3378c酶产生的。Rv3378c的晶体结构提供了支持药物设计以抑制异戊烷转移的信息。发现1-结核菌素腺苷为我们提供了了解结核分枝杆菌如何在巨噬细胞中抵抗杀菌和诊断结核病的新靶点。