14 DAY TRIAL // The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded a $4 million grant to William R. Jacobs, Jr, PhD, professor of microbiology & immunology and of genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, and also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator, to develop a new strategy to fight tuberculosis.
This award will allow researchers to carry on experiments in which they will try to delete every gene of the bacterium that causes TB - Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB).
By doing so, the team can observe how the organism is affected by the gene loss, thus finding out more about the way that the genes work.
Previous research have shown that certain MTB genes are vital for the survival of the bacterium, because they help it fight the effect of antibiotics for example, thus overcoming the immune system of the infected host.
For further research, the scientists will use a new technique developed in Jacobs' laboratory, called specialized transduction, which will generate nearly 4,500 specialized transducing phages, which will be used to destroy every gene present within the three different MTB strains (including XDR-TB - the newly evolved widespread drug resistant strain).
The scientists will then built deletion libraries, with two different genetic backgrounds: the standard disease-causing laboratory strain - H37Rv, and the non-pathogenic H37Rv derivative - mc26320.
The H37Rv strain is a pathogen, which means it must be studied under secure BSL3 laboratory conditions, while the mc26320 only needs BSL2 containment, being an important strain usually used for vaccine studies.
TB is the world's most deadly bacterial infection as it kills almost 2 million people every year.
“TB strains that resist some, most or even all current chemotherapies are becoming increasingly common,” according to Dr. Jacobs.
“We hope that our systematic evaluation of the entire TB genome will reveal genetic vulnerabilities that we can target with new and more effective treatments and vaccines.”
The results of the research will be available to researchers worldwide, through a NIH-designated depository and distribution center.