Descrizione del progetto
Nuovi bersagli per lo sviluppo di farmaci contro la tubercolosi
La tubercolosi è un’infezione batterica causata dal Mycobacterium tuberculosis che, generalmente, colpisce i polmoni. Sebbene possa essere prevenuta, più di un milione di persone muoiono ogni anno di tubercolosi. Ciò è dovuto alla mancanza di terapie efficaci e all’insorgenza della farmacoresistenza. Finanziato dal programma di azioni Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSCA), il progetto MTB-DETOX propone di identificare nuovi bersagli terapeutici contro la tubercolosi. Il lavoro si concentra sui percorsi di disintossicazione dello zinco, importanti per la sopravvivenza di M. tuberculosis nei macrofagi. I ricercatori caratterizzeranno le proteine implicate in questo percorso utilizzando un approccio multidisciplinare, svelando nuove opportunità per lo sviluppo di farmaci per la tubercolosi.
Obiettivo
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB) kills 1.5 million people every year. Major challenges facing TB eradication are the lack of effective and affordable treatments, the slow pace of innovation in TB drug discovery and the emergence of antibiotics resistance. Therefore, new approaches for addressing these challenges are urgently needed. Mtb is highly adapted to survive into human macrophages which expose the bacterium to many stresses including metal ion in-toxification, whereby the host cell increases its metal ion levels resulting in inflow of metal ions into Mtb. The host laboratory has previously demonstrated that the P-ATPase transporter CtpC is part of the metal efflux system involved in zinc detoxification, which is important for Mtb survival in macrophages. Intriguingly, CtpC and two other P-ATPases are encoded together with small proteins containing a domain of unknown function named DUF1490. Unpublished data show that the DUF1490 protein encoded with CtpC binds zinc and confers zinc in-toxification tolerance to Mtb. Additionally, DUF1490 proteins co-localize with CtpC to the plasma membrane into dynamic microdomains, named “metal efflux platforms”. I propose to uncover the function of DUF1490 proteins by testing two hypotheses: 1) DUF1490 proteins are metallochaperones that facilitate the intracellular transport of metal ions to membrane transporters, and 2) DUF1490 proteins are scaffold proteins involved in P-ATPase stabilization and metal efflux platforms assembly. To explore these hypotheses, I will combine genetic, microbiology and molecular biology strategies with high-resolution optical imaging, lipidomics and proteomics. Rigorous execution of the proposed research will generate insights into the role of DUF1490 proteins in Mtb metal detoxification and pathogenicity, as well as into the novel concept of metal efflux platforms, thus yielding opportunities for TB drug development that go beyond traditional targets.
Campo scientifico
CORDIS classifica i progetti con EuroSciVoc, una tassonomia multilingue dei campi scientifici, attraverso un processo semi-automatico basato su tecniche NLP.
CORDIS classifica i progetti con EuroSciVoc, una tassonomia multilingue dei campi scientifici, attraverso un processo semi-automatico basato su tecniche NLP.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsproteomics
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologybacteriology
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrytransition metals
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinepneumologytuberculosis
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsantibiotics
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinatore
75794 Paris
Francia