The complexation reactions between methylthymol blue (MTB) and Co2+, Ni2+, Cu2+, Zn2+ and Pb2+ ions have been studied in different water-methanol mixtures at pH 4.45 and 25 °C by a spectrophotometric technique. The stepwise stability constants of the resulting 1:1 and 2:1 (metal ion to ligand) complexes were determined from the absorban...

Infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) induces human alveolar macrophage (AMphi) apoptosis by a TNF-alpha-dependent mechanism. The apoptotic response is postulated to be a defense mechanism, limiting the growth of this intracellular pathogen. Consistent with that model, recent studies showed that the virulent MTB strain H37Rv induces substantially less AMphi apoptosis than the attenuated...

Tuberculosis, the second leading infectious disease killer after HIV, remains a top public health priority. The causative agent of tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), which can cause both acute and clinically latent infections, reprograms metabolism in response to the host niche. Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (Pck) is the enzyme at the center of the phosphoenolpyruvate-pyruvate-...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis/human immunodeficiency virus (MTB/HIV) coinfection presents a special challenge to the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Adoptive transfer of high-affinity T cell receptor (TCR) gene-modified T cells against MTB and HIV antigens is a promising approach to treating MTB/HIV coinfected patients whose cellular immunity is obviously disordered. We have...

The tryptophan-biosynthesis pathway is essential for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) to cause disease, but not all of the enzymes that catalyse this pathway in this organism have been identified. The structure and function of the enzyme complex that catalyses the first committed step in the pathway, the anthranilate synthase (AS) complex, have been analysed. It is shown that the open reading f...

The immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) includes expression of nitric oxide (NO) synthase (NOS)2, whose products can kill Mtb in vitro with a molar potency greater than that of many conventional antitubercular agents. However, the targets of reactive nitrogen intermediates (RNIs) in Mtb are unknown. One major action of RNIs is protein S-nitrosylation. Here, we describe, to our k...

Adenosine kinase (ADK) catalyzes the phosphorylation of adenosine (Ado) to adenosine monophosphate (AMP). It is part of the purine salvage pathway that has been identified only in eukaryotes, with the single exception of Mycobacterium spp. Whereas it is not clear if Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) ADK is essential, it has been shown that the enzyme can selectively phosphorylate nucleoside anal...

The glyoxylate shunt plays an important role in fatty acid metabolism and has been shown to be critical to survival of several pathogens involved in chronic infections. For Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), a strain with a defective glyoxylate shunt was previously shown to be unable to establish infection in a mouse model. We report the development of phenyl-diketo acid (PDKA) inhibitors of mal...