Use of a recombinant strain of Mycobacterium avium expressing beta-galactosidase to evaluate the activities of antimycobacterial agents inside macrophages.
A reliable and low-cost method that enables rapid screening of the activity exerted by new antimicrobial agents on intracellularly growing Mycobacterium avium has been developed. To this aim, a recombinant (lacZ) strain of M. avium expressing the Escherichia coli beta-galactosidase gene was used to evaluate, in murine macrophages, the susceptibility of M. avium to common antimycobacterial agents. beta-Galactosidase levels, measured in the presence of each of the antibiotics tested, were closely correlated with the number of CFU recovered from the M. avium lacZ strain-infected macrophages.
Maisetta
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G
Dipartimento di Patologia Sperimentale, Biotecnologie Mediche, Infettivologia ed Epidemiologia, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Batoni
G
G
Pardini
M
M
Boschi
A
A
Bottai
D
D
Esin
S
S
Campa
M
M
Senesi
S
S
D000818:Animals; D003114:Colony-Forming Units Assay; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007763:Lac Operon; D008264:Macrophages / Q000187:drug effects / Q000382:microbiology*; D051379:Mice; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D009162:Mycobacterium avium / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D001616:beta-Galactosidase / Q000378:metabolism*
D001616:beta-Galactosidase