Infections with Mycobacterium tuberculosis repeatedly trace antibiotic therapy failure and immune evasion. The pathogen itself has plenty of physiological properties that make contributions to these resistances. Chakraborty et al. demonstrate that plenty of mycobacterial pathogens can manufacture cellulose-containing biofilms. Biofilms are fashioned by M. tuberculosis in vitro and inside of granulomas in lung samples of mice, macaques, and humans. When nebulized cellulase used to be administered to infected mice alongside with frontline medication comparable to isoniazid and rifampicin, lung tissue disaster used to be minimal in comparison with controls receiving warmth-inactivated cellulase. Lines of the pathogen engineered to overexpress bacterial cellulases grew properly however had been sensitive to antibiotics, produced miserable biofilms, and had exiguous capacity to residing off tissue disaster. Mycobacterial cellulose could presumably perchance signify an Achilles heel to target for tuberculosis therapies.
Nat. Commun. 12, 1606 (2021).
