Targeting the TB proteasome

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have identified compounds that can kill non-replicating Mycobacterium by selectively and irreversibly inhibiting the organism's proteasome.¹ Beyond the potential for new therapeutics for tuberculosis, the findings provide a blueprint for an entirely new class of antibiotics that inhibit bacterial protein degradation pathways.

Earlier work had suggested that the M. tuberculosis proteasome was a potential drug target.² However, proteasome inhibitors in clinical development and on the market for cancer affect both pathogen and mammalian proteasomes, making them unsuitable for use as antibiotics...