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 absorbance-mole ratio data. it was found that the overall stability...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) inhibits phagosomal maturation to promote its survival inside macrophages. Control of MTB infection requires CD4 T cell responses and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II (MHC-II) processing of MTB antigens (Ags). To investigate phagosomal processing of MTB Ags, phagosomes containing heat-killed (HK) or live MTB were purified from interferon-gamma (IF...

BACKGROUND The human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) has the originality of possessing a multifunctional mega-enzyme FAS-I (Fatty Acid Synthase-I), together with a multi-protein FAS-II system, to carry out the biosynthesis of common and of specific long chain fatty acids: the mycolic acids (MA). MA are the main constituents of the external mycomembrane that represents a tight permeabi...

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused mainly by the bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), presenting 9.5 million new cases and 1.5 million deaths in 2014. The aim of this study was to evaluate a nanostructured lipid system (NLS) composed of 10% phase oil (cholesterol), 10% surfactant (soy phosphatidylcholine, sodium oleate), and Eumulgin(®) HRE 40 ([castor oil polyoxyl-40-hydro...

There are twenty-five published structures of Mycobacterium tuberculosis anthranilate phosphoribosyltransferase (Mtb-AnPRT) that use the same crystallization protocol. The structures include protein complexed with natural and alternative substrates, protein:inhibitor complexes, and variants with mutations of substrate-binding residues. Amongst these are varying space groups (i.e. P21, C2, P2121...

Pathogenic bacteria have evolved highly specialized systems to extract essential nutrients from their hosts. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) scavenges lipids (cholesterol and fatty acids) to maintain infections in mammals but mechanisms and proteins responsible for the import of fatty acids in Mtb were previously unknown. Here, we identify and determine that the previously uncharacterized prot...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) resides in a long-lived phagosomal compartment that resists maturation. The manner by which Mtb antigens are processed and presented on MHC Class I molecules is poorly understood. Using human dendritic cells and IFN-gamma release by CD8(+) T cell clones, we examined the processing and presentation pathway for two Mtb-derived antigens, each presented by a distinc...

Emergence of drug-resistant strains of the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and the ineffectiveness of BCG in curtailing Mtb infection makes vaccine development for tuberculosis an important objective. Identifying immunogenic CD8+ T cell peptide epitopes is necessary for peptide-based vaccine strategies. We present a three-tiered strategy for identifying and validating immunogenic pept...

Siderophores are small iron-binding molecules secreted by bacteria to scavenge iron. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the etiologic agent of tuberculosis, produces the siderophores mycobactin and carboxymycobactin. Complexes of the mycobacterial membrane proteins MmpS4 and MmpS5 with the transporters MmpL4 and MmpL5 are required for siderophore export and virulence in Mtb. Here we show that, s...

The role of Igs in natural protection against infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of TB, is controversial. Although passive immunization with mAbs generated against mycobacterial antigens has shown protective efficacy in murine models of infection, studies in B cell-depleted animals only showed modest phenotypes. We do not know if humans make protective antibody r...