title: Elimination of intracellularly residing Mycobacterium tuberculosis through targeting of host and bacterial signaling mechanisms.
abstract: With more than 2 billion latently infected people, TB continues to represent a serious threat to human health. According to the WHO, 1.1 million people died from TB in 2010, which is equal to approximately 3000 deaths per day. The causative agent of the disease, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is a highly successful pathogen having evolved remarkable strategies to persist within the host. Although normally, upon phagocytosis by macrophages, bacteria are readily eliminated by lysosomes, pathogenic mycobacteria actively prevent destruction within macrophages. The strategies that pathogenic mycobacteria apply range from releasing virulence factors to manipulating host molecules resulting in the modulation of host signal transduction pathways in order to sustain their viability within the infected host. Here, we analyze the current status of how a better understanding of both the bacterial and host factors involved in virulence can be used to develop drugs that may be helpful to curb the TB epidemic.
authors.affiliation: Biozentrum, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 70, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Rajesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jayachandran
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Scherr
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pieters
mesh_terms: D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008264:Macrophages / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects*; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D000995:Antitubercular Agents; D001426:Bacterial Proteins