Newly Discovered Protein May Help Explain Tuberculosis' Resiliency - Experts Find Another Reason Why The Bacterium Is So Nasty

Main Category: Tuberculosis
Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses;  Respiratory / Asthma
Article Date: 07 Nov 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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Weill Cornell scientists have located a protein produced by the tuberculosis bacterium that may tell researchers more about how the invader lives so resiliently inside of the body. Dr. Benjamin Gold, working with Dr. Carl Nathan, chairman of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College and their colleagues, located a protein called mycobacterial metallothionein (MymT), which acts like a shield to protect the tuberculosis bacterium from the body's natural defenses.

The tuberculosis bacterium lurks within cells called macrophages -- immune system cells that bombard harmful microbes with a soup of chemicals, including nitric oxide. The researchers believe that the newly discovered protein helps the bacterium resist a newly discovered action of nitric oxide, thus allowing the infection to stay strong within the body. The Weill Cornell scientists discovered nitric oxide can liberate copper from proteins within the bacterium, and may also reduce it from a relatively harmless form to lethal form. The new protein, MymT, binds the copper to protect the bacterium from being poisoned by the metal.

All the genetic information in the tuberculosis organism was sequenced in 1998. Yet the gene encoding MymT was overlooked until now because of its very small size and the novel way it encodes the protein. Thus, this study suggests that there may be other genes in bacterial pathogens that contribute to their potential to cause disease, but which have otherwise been overlooked, including relatives of MymT.

The study is published in a recent issue of the journal Nature Chemical Biology.

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NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, located in New York City, is one of the leading academic medical centers in the world, comprising the teaching hospital NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medical College, the medical school of Cornell University. NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell provides state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory and preventive care in all areas of medicine, and is committed to excellence in patient care, education, research and community service. Weill Cornell physician-scientists have been responsible for many medical advances -- from the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer to the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial for gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, the first indication of bone marrow's critical role in tumor growth, and, most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally-conscious brain-injured patient. NewYork-Presbyterian, which is ranked sixth on the U.S.News & World Report list of top hospitals, also comprises NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/The Allen Pavilion. Weill Cornell Medical College is the first U.S. medical college to offer a medical degree oversees and maintains a strong global presence in Austria, Brazil, Haiti, Tanzania, Turkey and Qatar. For more information, visit http://www.nyp.org and http://www.med.cornell.edu.

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