Search

Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection with the formation of a broad range of abnormal lung lesions within a single patient. Although host–pathogen interactions determine disease outcome, they are poorly understood within individual lesions at different stages of maturation. We compared Mtb load in a tuberculoma wall and the lung tissue distant from tuberculomas in TB patients. These data were combined with an analysis of activation and bactericidal statuses of alveolar macrophages and other cell subtypes examined both in ex vivo culture and on the histological sections obtained from the same lung lesions. The expression of pattern recognition receptors CD14, CD11b, and TLR-2, transcription factors HIF-1α, HIF-2α, and NF-κB p50 and p65, enzymes iNOS and COX-2, reactive oxygen species (ROS) biosynthesis, and lipid production were detected for various lung lesions, with individual Mtb loads in them. The walls of tuberculomas with insufficient inflammation and excessive fibrosis were identified as being the main niche for Mtb survival (single or as colonies) in non-foamy alveolar macrophages among various lung lesions examined. The identification of factors engaged in the control of Mtb infection and tissue pathology in local lung microenvironments, where host–pathogen relationships take place, is critical for the development of new therapeutic strategies.

A series of 6-fluoroaryl substituted [1,2,4]triazolo[1,5-A]pyrimidines have been synthesized by using the microwave-Assisted Suzuki cross-coupling reaction from readily available 6-bromo-[1,2,4]triazolo[1,5-A]pyrimidine. The antimicrobial activity of new compounds has been evaluated in vitro against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv and gram-negative (Neisseria gonorrhoeae ATCC 49226) bacteria. © ARKAT-USA, Inc.

Development of effective vaccine candidates against tuberculosis (TB) is currently the most important challenge in the prevention of this disease since the BCG vaccine fails to guarantee a lifelong protection, while any other approved vaccine with better efficiency is still absent. The protective effect of the recombinant fusion protein CFP10–ESAT6–dIFN produced in a prokaryotic expression system (Escherichia coli) has been assessed in a guinea pig model of acute TB. The tested antigen comprises the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) proteins ESAT6 and CFP10 as well as modified human γ-interferon (dIFN) for boosting the immune response. Double intradermal immunization of guinea pigs with the tested fusion protein (2 × 0.5 µg) induces a protective effect against subsequent Mtb infection. The immunized guinea pigs do not develop the symptoms of acute TB and their body weight gain was five times more as compared with the non-immunized infected guinea pigs. The animal group immunized with this dose of antigen displays the minimum morphological changes in the internal organs and insignificant inflammatory lesions in the liver tissue, which complies with a decrease in the bacterial load in the spleen and average Mtb counts in macrophages.

Background: Previously, the ex vivo cultures of alveolar macrophages were developed from the surgical samples of the lungs in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) to establish the unique features of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) lifestyle in host cells, but the question has remained whether Mtb-infected cells are isolated from the human lungs or they may be the result of Mtb phagocytosis in ex vivo culture. The study was aimed to investigate Mtb uptake by TB patients' cells after ex vivo expansion. Methods: Alveolar macrophages were infected with the Mtb clinical isolates in ex vivo culture, and the acid-fast Mtb loads in the cells were analyzed. Immunofluorescent staining and the examination of cytological and histological preparations by confocal microscopy were applied to detect Mtb ligands and macrophage surface markers. Results: The studies shown the lack of Mtb uptake by patients' alveolar macrophages during experimental infection with highly virulent Mtb clinical isolates containing pathogen-associated molecular patterns lipoarabinomannan and Ag38 at all used multiplicity of infection including a very high dose of infection. This fact was probably determined by the absence of pattern recognition receptors CD14, TLR2, and CD11b on the plasma membrane of human cells, likely, as a result of cellular processing from the resected lung tissues of patients. Conclusion: The findings indicate that alveolar macrophages with single Mtb or Mtb in colonies, including those with cord-morphology, found in the ex vivo cell cultures of all TB patients examined, were isolated from the lungs, and they characterize the Mtb infection in patients at the time of surgery.

The Petasis reaction of 6-alkoxy adducts of 1-alkyl-2,3-dicyano-5- arylpyrazinium salts with aromatic boronic acids, such as 2-thienylboronic, 2-furanylboronic and 3-thienylboronic acids, or their benzo analogs in dichloromethane proceeds smoothly at room temperature with the formation of the corresponding 5-aryl-6-hetaryl substituted 1,6-dihydropyrazine derivatives. All dihydropyrazines were separated as pure enantiomers by chiral HPLC, and their absolute configurations for each pair of enantiomers have been determined by X-ray analysis. Individual enantiomers were screened in vitro for their antimycobacterial activities against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv, avium, terrae and extensively drug-resistant and multi-drug-resistant strains isolated from tuberculosis patients in Ural region (Russia). It has been shown that several compounds exhibit a good level of antituberculosis activity compared to the reference drugs. © ARKAT-USA, Inc.

Tuberculosis (TB), with the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) as the causative agent, remains to be a serious world health problem. Traditional methods used for the study of Mtb in the lungs of TB patients do not provide information about the number and functional status of Mtb, especially if Mtb are located in alveolar macrophages. We have developed a technique to produce ex vivo cultures of cells from different parts of lung tissues surgically removed from patients with pulmonary TB and compared data on the number of cells with Mtb inferred by the proposed technique to the results of bacteriological and histological analyses used for examination of the resected lungs. The ex vivo cultures of cells obtained from the resected lungs of all patients were largely composed of CD14-positive alveolar macrophages, foamy or not, with or without Mtb. Lymphocytes, fibroblasts, neutrophils, and multinucleate Langhans giant cells were also observed. We found alveolar macrophages with Mtb in the ex vivo cultures of cells from the resected lungs of even those TB patients, whose sputum smears and lung tissues did not contain acid-fast Mtb or reveal growing Mtb colonies on dense medium. The detection of alveolar macrophages with Mtb in ex vivo culture as soon as 16-18 h after isolation of cells from the resected lungs of all TB patients suggests that the technique proposed for assessing the level of infection in alveolar macrophages of TB patients has higher sensitivity than do prolonged bacteriological or pathomorphological methods. The proposed technique allowed us to rapidly (in two days after surgery) determine the level of infection with Mtb in the cells of the resected lungs of TB patients and, by the presence or absence of Mtb colonies, including those with cording morphology, the functional status of the TB agent at the time of surgery.

We report a draft genome sequence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain E186hv, belonging to the Beijing B0/W lineage and isolated from a patient from Kurgan, Russia. This clinical isolate showed a reduced virulence phenotype unusual for this lineage and resistance to isoniazid, rifampin, ethambutol, pyrazinamide, and ofloxacin. We analyzed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with virulence.