Deconvolution of \(Mycobacterium\) \(tuberculosis\) drug targets using high throughput screening approaches

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious bacterial disease mainly infecting the pulmonary system of the human body. It affects around 1.5 million people every year, most of whom live in developing countries. The incidence of TB has increased in line with the rise in incidences of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infections and Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Due to the pressing concerns of TB, the World Health Organisation (WHO) came up with the Direct Observed Treatment (DOTS) programme. Unfortunately, the development of several resistant strains against first-line drugs and consequently second and third-line drugs have developed. As the current TB drug regimen is inadequate, a good screening strategy, discovery of newer drugs and identification of the mode of action would help in developing better treatment routines and determining bacterial pathways more clearly. Drug discovery follows two major routes, one leading from the drug to the target and the other from target to the drug. Both methods have been applied in this work in order to identify new drugs effective against mycobacteria. Screens performed against a drug library approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have resulted in some promising hits. Functional characterisation of a putative enoyl CoA hydratase EchA12, which was targeted by florfenicol, revealed a novel lipid chaperone functionality associated with cell wall lipid biosynthesis. Furthermore, a target based phenotypic drug screen of the GSK177 box set against Mtb-PrsA provided further evidence that this enzyme as a viable drug target (Ballell et. al., 2013)