Project description:An opportunistic intracellular pathogen Mycobacterium intracellulare, a member of the nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) cluster, causes respiratory disease in immunosuppressed hosts, including companion dogs. The purpose of this study is to investigate a host-M.intracellulare interactome in canine monocyte-derived macrophages during the infection.
Project description:An opportunistic intracellular pathogen Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis, a member of the nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) cluster, causes respiratory disease in immunosuppressed hosts. In particular, infected companion dogs are a potential role to transmit the agent to children or immunosuppressed people. The purpose of this study is to investigate a host-M. avium hominissuis interactome in canine PBMCs during the infection.
Project description:Tuberculosis (TB) is still a major global health challenge, killing over 1.5 million people each year, and hence, there is a need to identify and develop novel treatments for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis). The prevalence of infections caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) is also increasing and has overtaken TB cases in the United States and much of the developed world. Mycobacterium abscessus (M. abscessus) is one of the most frequently encountered NTM and is difficult to treat. We describe the use of drug-disease association using a semantic knowledge graph approach combined with machine learning models that has enabled the identification of several molecules for testing anti-mycobacterial activity. We established that niclosamide (M. tuberculosis IC90 2.95 μM; M. abscessus IC90 59.1 μM) and tribromsalan (M. tuberculosis IC90 76.92 μM; M. abscessus IC90 147.4 μM) inhibit M. tuberculosis and M. abscessus in vitro. To investigate the mode of action, we determined the transcriptional response of M. tuberculosis and M. abscessus to both compounds in axenic log phase, demonstrating a broad effect on gene expression that differed from known M. tuberculosis inhibitors. Both compounds elicited transcriptional responses indicative of respiratory pathway stress and the dysregulation of fatty acid metabolism. Further testing against drug-resistant isolates and other NTM is warranted to clarify the usefulness of these repurposed drugs for mycobacteria.
