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Klin Mikrobiol Infekc Lek 2018 Dec;24(4):112-117

Veterinary Research Institute, Brno, Czech Republic, e-mail:

Mycobacterium marinum is a slowly growing non-tuberculous (environmental, atypical) mycobacterium with zoonotic potential. It occurs in the aquatic environment and causes diseases in fish and other aquatic animals known as mycobacterioses. In humans, it primarily causes skin infections, which are most commonly located in the upper limbs. Read More

Sci Rep 2019 Jan 30;9(1):995. Epub 2019 Jan 30.

Laboratory of Experimental Immunology, BioMediTech Institute and Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.

Tuberculosis is a multifactorial bacterial disease, which can be modeled in the zebrafish (Danio rerio). Abdominal cavity infection with Mycobacterium marinum, a close relative of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, leads to a granulomatous disease in adult zebrafish, which replicates the different phases of human tuberculosis, including primary infection, latency and spontaneous reactivation. Here, we have carried out a transcriptional analysis of zebrafish challenged with low-dose of M. Read More

Elife 2019 Jan 29;8. Epub 2019 Jan 29.

Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, United States.

is the leading worldwide cause of death due to a single infectious agent. Existing anti-tuberculous therapies require long treatments and are complicated by multi-drug-resistant strains. Host-directed therapies have been proposed as an orthogonal approach, but few have moved into clinical trials. Read More

J Biol Chem 2019 Jan 28. Epub 2019 Jan 28.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Mycobacteria use type VII secretion (T7S) systems to secrete proteins across their highly hydrophobic diderm cell envelope. Pathogenic mycobacteria, such as and , have up to five of these systems, named ESX-1 to -5. Most of these systems contain a set of five conserved membrane components, of which the four Ecc proteins form the core membrane-embedded secretion complex. Read More

PLoS One 2019 23;14(1):e0211003. Epub 2019 Jan 23.

Pathogen Genomics Laboratory, BESE Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal-Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The mycobacterial type VII secretion system ESX-1 is responsible for the secretion of a number of proteins that play important roles during host infection. The regulation of the expression of secreted proteins is often essential to establish successful infection. Using transcriptome sequencing, we found that the abrogation of ESX-1 function in Mycobacterium marinum leads to a pronounced increase in gene expression levels of the espA operon during the infection of macrophages. Read More

Front Microbiol 2018 8;9:3184. Epub 2019 Jan 8.

Division of Clinical Microbiology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.

Bacteria belonging to the genus are predominantly responsible for pulmonary diseases; most notably causes granulomatous pulmonary infections. Here we describe a novel slow growing mycobacterial species isolated from respiratory samples from five patients, four with underlying pulmonary disease. The isolates were characterized by biochemical and molecular techniques, including whole genome sequencing. Read More

J Clin Aesthet Dermatol 2018 Dec 1;11(12):48-51. Epub 2018 Dec 1.

Ms. Krooks, Dr. Weatherall, and Dr. Markowitz are with the Florida Atlantic University Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine in Boca Raton, Florida.

A 70-year-old, immunocompetent male presented with mildly painful and pruritic erythematous patches and vesicles on the right dorsal aspect of the distal middle finger present for four weeks. Other skin lesions or systemic symptoms were notably absent. The patient failed to respond to valacyclovir, topical triamcinolone acetonide ointment, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and cephalexin for presumptive diagnoses of recurrent herpetic whitlow, dyshidrotic eczema, and blistering distal dactylitis, respectively. Read More

Crit Rev Microbiol 2018 Nov 21;44(6):779-792. Epub 2019 Jan 21.

b Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy , Kuwait University , Kuwait , State of Kuwait.

Tuberculosis is still a global health burden. It is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis which afflicts around one third of the world's population and costs around 1.3 million people their lives every year. Read More

Cell Microbiol 2019 Jan 17:e13008. Epub 2019 Jan 17.

Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Medical Microbiology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

The causative agent of tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and its close relative Mycobacterium marinum manipulate phagocytic host cells, thereby creating a replication-permissive compartment termed the Mycobacterium-containing vacuole (MCV). The phosphoinositide (PI) lipid pattern is a crucial determinant of MCV formation and is targeted by mycobacterial PI phosphatases. In this study, we establish an efficient phage transduction protocol to construct defined M. Read More

BMJ Case Rep 2019 Jan 10;12(1). Epub 2019 Jan 10.

Department of Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.

Proteins 2019 Jan 11. Epub 2019 Jan 11.

Molecular Biophysics Unit, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.

Small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) are ATP-independent molecular chaperones present ubiquitously in all kingdoms of life. Their low molecular weight subunits associate to form higher order structures. Under conditions of stress, sHSPs prevent aggregation of substrate proteins by undergoing rapid changes in their conformation or stoichiometry. Read More

Sci Rep 2019 Jan 10;9(1):26. Epub 2019 Jan 10.

Infectious Diseases Clinic, Umeå University Hospital, 901 85, Umeå, Sweden.

High-throughput screening facilities do not generally support biosafety level 3 organisms such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. To discover not only antibacterials, but also virulence inhibitors with either bacterial or host cell targets, an assay monitoring lung fibroblast survival upon infection was developed and optimized for 384-plate format and robotic liquid handling. By using Mycobacterium marinum as surrogate organism, 28,000 compounds were screened at biosafety level 2 classification, resulting in 49 primary hits. Read More

Chem Commun (Camb) 2019 Jan 9;55(8):1104-1107. Epub 2019 Jan 9.

Key Laboratory of Marine Drugs, The Ministry of Education of China, School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, People's Republic of China. and Laboratory for Marine Drugs and Bioproducts, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao 266200, People's Republic of China.

Integrating molecular networking and H NMR techniques successfully enabled the discovery of three new cycloheptapeptides, asperversiamides A-C (1-3). Their complete structures were further confirmed by total synthesis. All three compounds exhibited potent inhibitory activity against Mycobacterium marinum. Read More

ChemMedChem 2019 Feb 17;14(3):349-358. Epub 2019 Jan 17.

Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimiopolis, Athens, 15771, Greece.

In the quest for new antibacterial agents, a series of novel long- and medium-chain mono- and disubstituted β-lactones was developed. Their activity against three pathogenic mycobacteria-M. abscessus, M. Read More

PLoS Pathog 2018 12 31;14(12):e1007501. Epub 2018 Dec 31.

Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Geneva, Sciences II, Geneva, Switzerland.

Phagocytic cells capture and kill most invader microbes within the bactericidal phagosome, but some pathogens subvert killing by damaging the compartment and escaping to the cytosol. To prevent the leakage of pathogen virulence and host defence factors, as well as bacteria escape, host cells have to contain and repair the membrane damage, or finally eliminate the cytosolic bacteria. All eukaryotic cells engage various repair mechanisms to ensure plasma membrane integrity and proper compartmentalization of organelles, including the Endosomal Sorting Complex Required for Transport (ESCRT) and autophagy machineries. Read More

J Immunol 2019 Jan 14;202(2):494-502. Epub 2018 Dec 14.

The Bateson Centre, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN, United Kingdom;

Drug-resistant mycobacteria are a rising problem worldwide. There is an urgent need to understand the immune response to tuberculosis to identify host targets that, if targeted therapeutically, could be used to tackle these currently untreatable infections. In this study we use an Il-1β fluorescent transgenic line to show that there is an early innate immune proinflammatory response to well-established zebrafish models of inflammation and infection. Read More

Chem Sci 2018 Nov 23;9(41):7948-7957. Epub 2018 Aug 23.

Department of Chemistry , University of Adelaide , SA 5005 , Australia . Email:

The proteins responsible for controlling electron transfer in bacterial secondary metabolism are not always known or characterised. Here we demonstrate that many bacteria contain a set of unfamiliar ferredoxin encoding genes which are associated with those of cytochrome P450 (CYP) monooxygenases and as such are involved in anabolic and catabolic metabolism. The model organism M contains eleven of these genes which encode [3Fe-4S] or [4Fe-4S] single cluster containing ferredoxins but which have unusual iron-sulfur cluster binding motif sequences, XXXX(X) P, where '' indicates a variable amino acid residue. Read More

Mol Divers 2018 Dec 6. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb, 10 000, Zagreb, Croatia.

Here, we describe design and synthesis of twelve novel compounds bearing primaquine motif and hydroxy- or halogenamine linked by an urea or bis-urea spacer. Preparation of ureas 3a-f started with the conversion of primaquine to benzotriazolide 2 and aminolysis of the later compound by 4-(2-aminoethyl)phenol or amino alcohols bearing fluorine atom, cycloalkyl or trifluoromethyl group under microwave irradiation. The four-step sequence leading to bis-ureas 6a-f included preparation of benzotriazolide 2 and two intermediates, semicarbazide 4 and benzotriazole bis-urea 5, which upon aminolysis with the same aminophenol or amino alcohols gave the title compounds. Read More

J Med Microbiol 2019 Feb 12;68(2):221-229. Epub 2018 Dec 12.

2​Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK.

Purpose: Mycobacteria are common causative agents of bacterial infections in many species of freshwater and marine fish. Identification of mycobacteria to the species level based on phenotypic tests is inappropriate and time consuming. Molecular methods such as partial or entire gene sequence determination in mycobacteria have been employed to resolve these problems. Read More

Dev Comp Immunol 2019 03 4;92:253-259. Epub 2018 Dec 4.

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Rochester Medical Center, United States. Electronic address:

Owing to the high incidence of multi-drug resistance and challenges posed by the complex and long duration of treatments, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infections remain a significant clinical burden, which would benefit from development of novel immuno-therapeutic-based treatment strategies. Among early immune effectors, invariant or innate-like (i)T cells are attracting attention because of their potential regulatory activity, which can shape anti-mycobacterial immune responses. Unlike conventional T cells, iT cells express a semi-invariant T cell receptor, and respond rapidly and robustly to molecular patterns presented by MHC class I-like molecules. Read More

Biochim Biophys Acta Gen Subj 2019 Feb 23;1863(2):408-417. Epub 2018 Nov 23.

Department of Chemistry, University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. Electronic address:

Background: Cyp147G1 is one of 47 cytochrome P450 encoding genes in Mycobacterium marinum M, a pathogenic bacterium with a high degree of sequence similarity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium ulcerans. Cyp147G1 is one of only two of these cyp genes which are closely associated with a complete electron transfer system.

Methods: The substrate range of the enzyme was tested in vitro and the activity of CYP147G1 was reconstituted in vivo by co-producing the P450 with the ferredoxin and ferredoxin reductase. Read More

Infect Drug Resist 2018 30;11:2069-2071. Epub 2018 Oct 30.

Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, Università degli Studi di Milano, I.R.C.C.S. Foundation, Cà Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy,

is the etiologic agent of fish tank granuloma. The clinical course is usually benign: spontaneous healing is possible within weeks or months. However, fish tank granuloma is sometimes resistant to several antibiotics. Read More

J Vis Exp 2018 10 30(140). Epub 2018 Oct 30.

BioMediTech Institute, Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Tampere; Department of Pediatrics, Tampere University Hospital; Department of Children and Adolescents, Oulu University Hospital; PEDEGO Research Unit, Medical Research Center, University of Oulu;

The interest in DNA-based vaccination has increased during the past two decades. DNA vaccination is based on the cloning of a sequence of a selected antigen or a combination of antigens into a plasmid, which enables a tailor-made and safe design. The administration of DNA vaccines into host cells leads to the expression of antigens that stimulate both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses. Read More

Clin Microbiol Rev 2018 01 14;32(1). Epub 2018 Nov 14.

Servicio de Dermatología y Departamento de Micología, Hospital General de México, Mexico City, Mexico.

Humans encounter mycobacterial species due to their ubiquity in different environmental niches. In many individuals, pathogenic mycobacterial species may breach our first-line barrier defenses of the innate immune system and modulate the activation of phagocytes to cause disease of the respiratory tract or the skin and soft tissues, sometimes resulting in disseminated infection. Cutaneous mycobacterial infections may cause a wide range of clinical manifestations, which are divided into four main disease categories: (i) cutaneous manifestations of infection, (ii) Buruli ulcer caused by and other related slowly growing mycobacteria, (iii) leprosy caused by and , and (iv) cutaneous infections caused by rapidly growing mycobacteria. Read More

J Vis Exp 2018 10 8(140). Epub 2018 Oct 8.

Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Tampere; Oral and Maxillofacial Unit, Tampere University Hospital.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is currently the deadliest human pathogen causing 1.7 million deaths and 10.4 million infections every year. Read More

SAGE Open Med Case Rep 2018 10;6:2050313X18804071. Epub 2018 Oct 10.

Section of Dermatology, Department of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.

We report a case of cutaneous infection with the unusual reported features of pruritus and paresthesia. In addition, we report a lack of in-vivo response to antibiotics based on in-vitro susceptibility testing. Read More

Cell Host Microbe 2018 10;24(4):514-525.e6

Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710, USA; Department of Immunology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC 27710, USA. Electronic address:

Mycobacterial infection leads to the formation of characteristic immune aggregates called granulomas, a process accompanied by dramatic remodeling of the host vasculature. As granuloma angiogenesis favors the infecting mycobacteria, it may be actively promoted by bacterial determinants during infection. Using Mycobacterium marinum-infected zebrafish as a model, we identify the enzyme proximal cyclopropane synthase of alpha-mycolates (PcaA) as an important bacterial determinant of granuloma-associated angiogenesis. Read More

J Biomed Nanotechnol 2018 Dec;14(12):2185-2197

The mechanism of () evasion of host cell remains elusive. Several microRNAs that are involved in this complex process were identified. miRNA interference-based therapeutics represents an attractive challenge and shows huge potential for disorder treatment. Read More

ACS Chem Biol 2018 Nov 25;13(11):3184-3192. Epub 2018 Oct 25.

Global Health Institute , Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne , Lausanne CH-1015 , Switzerland.

Benzothiazinones (BTZ) are highly potent bactericidal inhibitors of mycobacteria and the lead compound, BTZ043, and the optimized drug candidate, PBTZ169, have potential for the treatment of tuberculosis. Here, we exploited the tractability of the BTZ scaffold by attaching a range of fluorophores to the 2-substituent of the BTZ ring via short linkers. We show by means of fluorescence imaging that the most advanced derivative, JN108, is capable of efficiently labeling its target, the essential flavoenzyme DprE1, both in cell-free extracts and after purification as well as in growing cells of different actinobacterial species. Read More

Molecules 2018 Sep 28;23(10). Epub 2018 Sep 28.

Global Change Research Institute CAS, Belidla 986/4a, CZ-603 00 Brno, Czech Republic.

In order to provide a more detailed view on the structure⁻antimycobacterial activity relationship () of phenylcarbamic acid derivatives containing two centers of protonation, 1-[2-[({[2-/3-(alkoxy)phenyl]amino}carbonyl)oxy]-3-(dipropylammonio)propyl]pyrrolidinium oxalates (⁻)/dichlorides (⁻) as well as 1-[2-[({[2-/3-(alkoxy)phenyl]amino}carbonyl)oxy]-3-(di-propylammonio)propyl]azepanium oxalates (⁻)/dichlorides (⁻; alkoxy = butoxy to heptyloxy) were physicochemically characterized by estimation of their surface tension (γ; Traube's stalagmometric method), electronic features (log ; UV/Vis spectrophotometry) and lipophilic properties (log ; isocratic RP-HPLC) as well. The experimental log dataset was studied together with computational logarithms of partition coefficients (log ) generated by various methods based mainly on atomic or combined atomic and fragmental principles. Similarities and differences between the experimental and lipophilicity descriptors were analyzed by unscaled principal component analysis (PCA). Read More

Future Microbiol 2018 09 21;13:1211-1214. Epub 2018 Sep 21.

School of Basic & Applied Science, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda-151001, India.

Fish Shellfish Immunol 2018 Dec 13;83:238-242. Epub 2018 Sep 13.

Tuberculosis Research Program Centenary Institute, Sydney Medical School The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia; Tuberculosis Research Program Centenary Institute, Sydney Medical School and Marie Bashir Institute The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia. Electronic address:

Changes to lipid metabolism are well-characterised consequences of human tuberculosis infection but their functional relevance are not clearly elucidated in these or other host-mycobacterial systems. The zebrafish-Mycobacterium marinum infection model is used extensively to model many aspects of human-M. tuberculosis pathogenesis but has not been widely used to study the role of infection-induced lipid metabolism. Read More

Bioorg Chem 2018 Dec 29;81:414-424. Epub 2018 Aug 29.

Aix-Marseille Univ, CNRS, LISM, Institut de Microbiologie de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France. Electronic address:

A set of 19 oxadiazolone (OX) derivatives have been investigated for their antimycobacterial activity against two pathogenic slow-growing mycobacteria, Mycobacterium marinum and Mycobacterium bovis BCG, and the avirulent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) mc6230. The encouraging minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) values obtained prompted us to test them against virulent M. Read More

Methods Cell Biol 2018 2;147:199-213. Epub 2018 Aug 2.

School of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.

Single-cell imaging of host-microbe interactions over time is impeded by cellular motility because the cells under scrutiny tend to migrate out of the imaging field. To overcome this technical challenge, we developed a microfluidic platform for imaging hundreds of individual motile phagocytic cells and bacteria within microfluidic traps that restrict their movement. The interaction of trapped host cells and bacteria is monitored by long-term time-lapse microscopy, allowing direct visualization of all stages of infection at the single-cell level. Read More

Clin Exp Rheumatol 2018 Nov-Dec;36(6):1117. Epub 2018 Jul 19.

Department of Pathophysiology, School of Medicine, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens; Institute for Autoimmune Systemic and Neurological Diseases, Athens; and Academy of Athens, Greece.

Zoonoses Public Health 2019 Feb 24;66(1):164-168. Epub 2018 Aug 24.

Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit, Port Hope, Ontario, Canada.

In July 2015, a cluster of five suspect cases of clinically diagnosed Mycobacterium marinum (M. marinum) skin infections were reported to the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit (HKPRDHU), Ontario, Canada, with two additional cases subsequently identified through case finding. All seven cases presented with cutaneous lesions located on the finger, hand and/or elbow regions typical of M. Read More

J Aquat Anim Health 2018 Dec 23;30(4):312-324. Epub 2018 Oct 23.

Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research, National Center for Mariculture, Eilat, 8811201, Israel.

No vaccine is yet commercially available against Mycobacterium marinum, the etiological agent of fish mycobacteriosis (also known as "fish tuberculosis"). The mycobacterial gene responsible for invasion and intracellular persistence, iipA, is known to moderate M. marinum pathology in Zebrafish Danio rerio. Read More

Prim Care 2018 Sep 9;45(3):555-566. Epub 2018 Jul 9.

Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo School of Medicine, 4500 San Pablo Road, Jacksonville, FL 32224, USA.

Aquatic-based infections can present a treatment challenge for primary care physicians because of the likely polymicrobial nature of the infection and the possibility of uncommon pathogenic organisms. Although Staphylococcus and Streptococcus species that colonize the skin are the most common etiologic agents associated with saltwater and freshwater skin and soft tissue infections, other significant pathogens can include Vibrio, Aeromonas, Edwardsiella, Erysipelothrix, and Mycobacterium. Early detection and appropriate management of aquatic infections can significantly decrease morbidity and mortality. Read More

Sci Rep 2018 Aug 13;8(1):12040. Epub 2018 Aug 13.

Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Box 596, Biomedical Centre, SE-751 24, Uppsala, Sweden.

Mycobacterium marinum is the causative agent for the tuberculosis-like disease mycobacteriosis in fish and skin lesions in humans. Ubiquitous in its geographical distribution, M. marinum is known to occupy diverse fish as hosts. Read More

Langmuir 2019 Feb 28;35(5):1818-1827. Epub 2018 Aug 28.

Duke University Marine Laboratory, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University , Beaufort , North Carolina 28516-9721 , United States.

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are widely used in science and engineering, and recent progress has demonstrated the utility of zwitterionic peptides with alternating lysine (K) and glutamic acid (E) residues for antifouling purposes. Aiming at developing a peptide-based fouling-resistant SAM suitable for presentation of surface-attached pheromones for barnacle larvae, we have investigated five different peptide SAMs, where four are based on the EK motif, and the fifth was designed based on general principles for fouling resistance. The SAMs were formed by self-assembly onto gold substrates via cysteine residues on the peptides, and formation of SAMs was verified via ellipsometry, wettability, infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. Read More

PLoS Pathog 2018 08 13;14(8):e1007247. Epub 2018 Aug 13.

Section Molecular Microbiology, Amsterdam Institute of Molecules, Medicines & Systems, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

The pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis employs a range of ESX-1 substrates to manipulate the host and build a successful infection. Although the importance of ESX-1 secretion in virulence is well established, the characterization of its individual components and the role of individual substrates is far from complete. Here, we describe the functional characterization of the Mycobacterium marinum accessory ESX-1 proteins EccA1, EspG1 and EspH, i. Read More

ACS Nano 2018 Aug 15;12(8):8646-8661. Epub 2018 Aug 15.

Department of Biosciences , University of Oslo , Blindernveien 31 , 0371 Oslo , Norway.

The enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect is the only described mechanism enabling nanoparticles (NPs) flowing in blood to reach tumors by a passive targeting mechanism. Here, using the transparent zebrafish model infected with Mycobacterium marinum we show that an EPR-like process also occurs allowing different types of NPs to extravasate from the vasculature to reach granulomas that assemble during tuberculosis (TB) infection. PEGylated liposomes and other NP types cross endothelial barriers near infection sites within minutes after injection and accumulate close to granulomas. Read More

J Proteome Res 2018 Sep 16;17(9):3246-3258. Epub 2018 Aug 16.

N-terminal acetylation (NTA) is a post-transcriptional modification of proteins that is conserved from bacteria to humans. In bacteria, the enzymes that mediate protein NTA also promote antimicrobial resistance. In pathogenic mycobacteria, which cause human tuberculosis and other chronic infections, NTA has been linked to pathogenesis and stress response, yet the fundamental biology underlying NTA of mycobacterial proteins remains unclear. Read More

J Cell Sci 2018 Sep 3;131(17). Epub 2018 Sep 3.

Départment de Biochimie, Faculté des Sciences, Université de Genève, Sciences II, 30 quai Ernest Ansermet, CH-1211 Genève-4, Switzerland

Phagocytic cells take up, kill and digest microbes by a process called phagocytosis. To this end, these cells bind the particle, rearrange their actin cytoskeleton, and orchestrate transport of digestive factors to the particle-containing phagosome. The mammalian lysosomal membrane protein LIMP-2 (also known as SCARB2) and CD36, members of the class B of scavenger receptors, play a crucial role in lysosomal enzyme trafficking and uptake of mycobacteria, respectively, and generally in host cell defences against intracellular pathogens. Read More

Handchir Mikrochir Plast Chir 2018 06 25;50(3):210-211. Epub 2018 Jul 25.

Dev Comp Immunol 2018 11 21;88:169-172. Epub 2018 Jul 21.

Tuberculosis Research Program, Centenary Institute, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia; Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Newtown, NSW, Australia; Marie Bashir Institute, University of Sydney, Newtown, NSW, Australia. Electronic address:

Host lipid metabolism is an important target for subversion by pathogenic mycobacteria such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The appearance of foam cells within the granuloma are well-characterised effects of chronic tuberculosis. The zebrafish-Mycobacterium marinum infection model recapitulates many aspects of human-M. Read More

ACS Omega 2017 Jul 7;2(7):3284-3290. Epub 2017 Jul 7.

School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 62 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637459, Singapore.

In recent years, production of fatty acid derivatives has attracted much attention because of their wide range of applications in renewable oleochemicals. Microorganisms such as provided an ideal cell factory for such chemical synthesis. In this study, an efficient strategy for the synthesis of fatty alcohols based on enhanced supply of free fatty acids (FFAs) was constructed. Read More

Molecules 2018 Jul 14;23(7). Epub 2018 Jul 14.

Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb, A. Kovačića 1, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia.

Novel primaquine (PQ) and halogenaniline asymmetric fumardiamides ⁻, potential Michael acceptors, and their reduced analogues succindiamides ⁻ were prepared by simple three-step reactions: coupling reaction between PQ and mono-ethyl fumarate () or mono-methyl succinate (), hydrolysis of PQ-dicarboxylic acid mono-ester conjugates , to corresponding acids ,, and a coupling reaction with halogenanilines. 1-[bis(Dimethylamino)methylene]-1-1,2,3-triazolo[4,5-]pyridinium 3-oxide hexafluorophosphate (HATU) was used as a coupling reagent along with Hünig's base. Compounds and were evaluated against a panel of bacteria, several strains, fungi, a set of viruses, and nine different human tumor cell lines. Read More

Sci Rep 2018 Jul 9;8(1):10360. Epub 2018 Jul 9.

Laboratory of Experimental Immunology, BioMediTech Institute and Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland.

Tuberculosis ranks as one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases causing more than a million casualties annually. IL10 inhibits the function of Th1 type cells, and IL10 deficiency has been associated with an improved resistance against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in a mouse model. Here, we utilized M. Read More

Fitoterapia 2018 Sep 5;129:191-197. Epub 2018 Jul 5.

Natural Products Institute, University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston 7, Jamaica.

Cleome rutidosperma DC, commonly known in Jamaica as 'consumption-weed' is a plant traditionally used in folklore for treating tuberculosis and other infectious and chronic ailments. We evaluate for the first time the chemical composition and biological activities of the essential oil components of the complete aerial parts of this plant. The essential oil obtained by steam distillation (0. Read More