![A One-two TB Knockout Punch]()
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB, has developed extensive drug resistance so that treatment is often lengthy or ineffective. In a paper published on June 26 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Michael Berney, Ph.D., and his graduate student Erik Hasenoehrl, found a way to exploit the bacterium’s oxidative phosphorylation pathway that may lead to better treatments. Dr. Berney’s group, together with collaborators from Singapore, found that resistant TB infections require two terminal oxidases--molecular pumps that TB bacteria rely on to generate energy. Using chemical biology and genetic approaches, Dr. Berney and colleagues showed that simultaneously inactivating both pumps halts TB cell respiration leading to cell death. The researchers shut down both pumps and rapidly cleared M. tuberculosis infection in a TB mouse model by coupling deletion of one oxidase gene with use of a drug. Dr. Berney is an assistant professor of microbiology & immunology.
Posted on: Thursday, July 13, 2017