Open AccessApplication of Mycobacterium smegmatis as a surrogate to evaluate drug leads against Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Author(s) -
Nada Lelovic,
Katsuhiko Mitachi,
Jiacheng Yang,
Maddie R. Lemieux,
Yinduo Ji,
Masaaki Kurosu
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of antibiotics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.56
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1881-1469
pISSN - 0021-8820
DOI - 10.1038/s41429-020-0320-7
Subject(s) - mycobacterium smegmatis , capreomycin , ethambutol , mycobacterium tuberculosis , rifampicin , microbiology and biotechnology , tuberculosis , bedaquiline , drug resistance , mycobacterium , drug , isoniazid , antibiotics , virology , biology , medicine , pharmacology , pathology
Discovery of new anti-tuberculosis (TB) drugs is a time-consuming process due to the slow-growing nature of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). A requirement of biosafety level 3 (BSL-3) facility for performing research associated with Mtb is another limitation for the development of TB drug discovery. In our screening of BSL-1 Mycobacterium spp. against a battery of TB drugs, M. smegmatis (ATCC607) exhibits good agreement with its drug susceptibility against the TB drugs under a low-nutrient culture medium (0.5% Tween 80 in Middlebrook 7H9 broth). M. smegmatis (ATCC607) enters its dormant form in 14 days under a nutrient-deficient condition (a PBS buffer), and shows resistance to a majority of TB drugs, but shows susceptibility to amikacin, capreomycin, ethambutol, and rifampicin (with high concentrations) whose activities against non-replicating (or dormant) Mtb were previously validated.