Validation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis dihydroneopterin aldolase as a molecular target for anti-tuberculosis drug development.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun
; 485(4): 814-819, 2017 04 15.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28257847
ABSTRACT
An early step of target validation in antimicrobial drug discovery is to prove that a gene coding for a putative target is essential for pathogen's viability. However, little attention has been paid to demonstrate the causal links between gene essentiality and a particular protein function that will be the focus of a drug discovery effort. This should be considered an important step in target validation since a growing number of proteins are found to exhibit multiple and unrelated tasks. Here, we show that the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) folB gene is essential and that this essentiality depends on the dihydroneopterin aldolase/epimerase activities of its protein product, the FolB protein from the folate biosynthesis pathway. The wild-type (WT) MtFolB and point mutants K99A and Y54F were cloned, expressed, purified and monitored for the aldolase, epimerase and oxygenase activities using HPLC. In contrast to the WT MtFolB, both mutants have neither aldolase nor epimerase activities in the conditions assayed. We then performed gene knockout experiments and showed that folB gene is essential for Mtb survival under the conditions tested. Moreover, only the WT folB sequence could be used as a rescue copy in gene complementation studies. When the sequences of mutants K99A or Y54F were used for complementation, no viable colonies were obtained, indicating that aldolase and/or epimerase activities are crucial for Mtb survival. These results provide a solid basis for further work aiming to develop new anti-TB agents acting as inhibitors of the aldolase/epimerase activities of MtFolB.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Proteínas de Bactérias
/
Aldeído Liases
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Descoberta de Drogas
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Mycobacterium tuberculosis
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Antituberculosos
Limite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Biochem Biophys Res Commun
Ano de publicação:
2017
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Brasil