Role in Tuberculosis
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the cause of tuberculosis, evades effective immune clearance through encapsulation, especially with mycolic acids which are particularly resistant to the normal degradative processes of macrophages. Furthermore, this capsule inhibits entry of antibiotics. The enzymes involved in mycolate biosynthesis are essential for survival and pathogenesis, and thus represent excellent drug targets.
In M. tuberculosis, the beta-ketoacyl- synthase III enzyme is designated mtFabH and is a crucial link between the fatty acid synthase-I and fatty acid synthase-II pathways producing mycolic acids. FAS-I is involved in the synthesis of C16 and C26 fatty acids. The C16 acyl-CoA product acts as a substrate for the synthesis of meromycolic acid by FAS-II, whereas the C26 fatty acid constitutes the alpha branch of the final mycolic acid. MtFabH has been proposed to be the link between FAS-I and FAS-II by converting C14-CoA generated by FAS-I to C16-AcpM, which is channelled into the FAS-II cycle. According to in silico flux balance analyses, mtFabH is essential but not according to transposon site hybridization analysis. Unlike the enzymes in FAS-I, the enzymes of FAS-II, including mtFabH, and are not found in mammals, suggesting inhibitors of these enzymes are suitable choices for drug development.
Read more about this topic: Beta-ketoacyl-(acyl-carrier-protein) Synthase III
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