New Classes of Alanine Racemase Inhibitors Identified by High-Throughput Screening Show Antimicrobial Activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis
2011

New Alanine Racemase Inhibitors Found to Fight Tuberculosis

Sample size: 53000 publication 10 minutes Evidence: moderate

Author Information

Author(s): Karen G. Anthony, Ulrich Strych, Kacheong R. Yeung, Carolyn S. Shoen, Oriana Perez, Kurt L. Krause, Michael H. Cynamon, Paul A. Aristoff, Raymond A. Koski

Primary Institution: L2 Diagnostics, LLC

Hypothesis

Can high-throughput screening identify novel non-substrate inhibitors of alanine racemase that are effective against Mycobacterium tuberculosis?

Conclusion

The study successfully identified several novel alanine racemase inhibitors that show antimicrobial activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis with low cytotoxicity.

Supporting Evidence

  • Seventeen novel non-substrate alanine racemase inhibitors were identified.
  • Seven of these inhibitors showed activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
  • The inhibitors demonstrated minimal cytotoxicity against mammalian cells.

Takeaway

Researchers looked for new medicines to fight tuberculosis by testing a lot of different chemicals, and they found some that work well without hurting healthy cells.

Methodology

High-throughput screening of 53,000 small molecule compounds was conducted to identify non-substrate alanine racemase inhibitors.

Limitations

The study primarily focused on in vitro results, and further in vivo studies are needed to confirm the efficacy and safety of the identified inhibitors.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1371/journal.pone.0020374

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