Pathogen Box screening for hit identification against Mycobacterium abscessus

PLoS One. 2018 Apr 26;13(4):e0195595. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195595. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Mycobacterium abscessus is a rapidly growing life-threatening mycobacterium with multiple drug-resistance mechanisms. However, there is no official regimen for M. abscessus therapy. In this study, we screened the Pathogen Box, which contains 400 drug-like molecules active against neglected diseases, to identify active molecules targeting Mycobacterium abscessus using resazurin live/dead assays. In this screening assay, the Z-factor was 0.7, as an indicator of the statistical confidence of the assay. A cut-off of 80% growth inhibition in the screening resulted in the identification of four different compounds at a single concentration (20 μM). Dose-response curves identified three different hit candidates, i.e., MMV688508, MMV688844, and MMV688845, which generated good inhibitory curves. All hit candidates were expected to have different molecular targets. Among them, MMV688844 showed the best minimum inhibitory concentration value for not only wild-type M. abscessus but also for nine different R and S morphotype clinical isolates. Thus, we found that MMV688844, identified from the Pathogen Box screen, may be a promising candidate in the M. abscessus drug discovery pipeline.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / chemistry
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology
  • Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
  • Microbial Sensitivity Tests
  • Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous / drug therapy
  • Mycobacterium abscessus / drug effects*

Substances

  • Anti-Bacterial Agents

Grants and funding

This research was supported by a grant from funds of the research promotion program, Gyeongsang National University, 2016 and by the National Research Foundation of Korea (grants NRF-2011-0001759, 2014R1A1A1007464, and 2016R1D1A1A02937214). Jinsun Jeong was supported by the BK21plus. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.