Abstract
Mycobacterium avium is an opportunistic pathogen that may cause either localized or, in persons with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), disseminated disease. Under certain conditionsM. avium exhibits a requirement for fatty acid for maximum production of colony-forming units (CFU). However, cerulenin, a drug that inhibits fatty acid synthetase, inhibited the growth ofM. avium LM1 (serovar 1) with a minimal inhibitory concentration of 10 μg/ml regardless of oleic acid supplementation at 50 μg/ml. Cerulenin at 10 μg/ml also inhibited the growth of five other strains ofM. avium isolated from AIDS patients. Octanoate, oleate, and palmitate, individually or in two-way combinations, were tested for ability to reverse the effect of cerulenin. Octanoate at 50 μg/ml could reverse the bactericidal effect of cerulenin at 10 μg/ml and the bacteriostatic effect of the drug at 5 μg/ml. Because cerulenin when effectively inhibiting production of CFU also prevented cell elongation, the data suggest that octanoate, or a metabolic product, is critical to cell division ofM. avium.
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McCarthy, C.M. Reversal of cerulenin inhibition ofMycobacterium avium by octanoate. Current Microbiology 17, 121–125 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01573466
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01573466