The DDU Tuberculosis team have recently published an article that discusses Lysyl-tRNA synthetase as a new target for urgently needed anti-tubercular drugs. Tuberculosis (TB) is a major cause of both mortality and financial burden globally, mainly in low and middle-income countries. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, TB was the world’s leading infectious disease killer responsible for 1.4 million deaths in 2020 and an estimated 10 million people being infected each year. Given the significant and ongoing rise of multi and extensively drug-resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis within the clinical setting, there is an urgent need for the development of new, safe and effective treatments. This publication describes the development of a novel drug-like series (the first to be developed against M. tuberculosis lysyl-tRNA synthetase (LysRS)) from taking an in vitro screening hit through to a selection phase candidate. The cellular studies to support this novel mode of action in TB are described and importantly preliminary analysis using clinical resistant strains shows no pre-existing clinical resistance towards this novel scaffold, a key factor in new anti-tubercular agents.
This paper was selected to be included in the Editors’ Highlights webpage of recent research in the Microbiology and infectious diseases section for Nature Communications. The Editors’ Highlights pages aim to showcase the 50 best papers recently published in an area.
31st October 2022