Team:Missouri Miners/Project

Inspiration:

Tuberculosis is caused by bacterial infections of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. With the discovery of antibiotics and their use in the treatment of tuberculosis is a double edged sword while curing the disease in some cases it can cause resistant mutants to emerge. Proper treatment of tuberculosis is, typically, a multidrug regiment using first line antiTB drugs; isoniazid, rifampin, pyrazinamide, ethambutol and streptomycin (Long 425-428). Although if the regiment is not prescribed correctly or is not followed, due to misinformation or financial problems, the large population of tubercle bacilli can contain naturally drug-resistant mutants and those mutants can become a large percentage of the population (Long 425-428). Tuberculosis is highly contagious and the spread of resistant mutants is causing more and more drug-resistant tuberculosis cases every year (“World Health Organization”).

A tuberculosis lesion within the body can contain 107–109 bacilli and 10-1000 of those are resistant to only one of the first line antiTB drugs, but a case of drug-resistant tuberculosis is only when ≥1/100 of the population is resistant. Drug resistance theory is the most widely accepted explanation for why multi- and extensive-resistant tuberculosis strains are emerging. Drug-resistance is due to the selection do pre-existing resistant mutants in the original bacterial population by drug pressure. The drug pressure in the case for tuberculosis is because Mycobacterium tuberculosis produces a mycolic acid, complex fatty acid, biofilm that protects it from the host’s immune system and makes drug delivery extremely difficult.

The original idea for our project was to start the first steps towards an anti-mycobacteria microbe capable of breaking down the mycolic acid biofilm around the bacilli and allow the host’s immune system and drugs to get rid of the infection. This proposal meant that fatty acid degradation and an easy implementation of the degrading enzymes needed to be created.

References:

Chao, Tiffany. "Tuberculosis Becoming More Drug-Resistant Worldwide." ABC News. ABC News Medical Unit, 30 August 2012. Web. 28 Sep 2012. .
Long, Robert. "Drug-resistant tuberculosis." Canadian Medical Association Journal. 163.4 (2000): 425-428. Web. 28 Sep. 2012. .
"Tuberculosis." World Health Organization. N.p., March 2012. Web. 28 Sep 2012. .