Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City say exciting new molecular targets - so-called "virulence factors" that bacteria use to thrive once they are in the host - present a potent means of stopping TB, leprosy and other bacterial illness.
"We have developed the first inhibitor of a key small molecule from Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae (which causes leprosy) utilized to subvert human host's defenses and damage and invade human host's cells during infection," Dr. Luis Quadri, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College, said in a statement.
"With this work, we now have proof of principle for the inhibition of this virulence factor in bacteria cultured in the lab. Our next step is to explore whether this inhibitor can stop these pathogens from multiplying in a mouse host, curtailing infection," he said.
The findings will be published Jan. 26 in Chemistry and Biology.
"We are moving beyond antimicrobials such as antibiotics, which kill the bacterium directly, to anti-infectives, that may have no effect against the pathogen in the test tube but which do compromise its ability to infect and spread in the host," he explained.
