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Mycobacterium aurum is Unable to Survive Mycobacterium tuberculosis Latency Associated Stress Conditions: Implications as Non-suitable Model Organism

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Abstract

Mycobacterium tuberculosis manages to remain latent in the human body regardless of extensive chemotherapy. Complete eradication of tuberculosis (TB) requires treatment strategies targeted against latent form of infection, in addition to the current regimen of antimycobacterials. Many in vitro and in vivo models have been proposed to imitate latent TB infection, yet none of them is able to completely mimic latent infection state of M. tuberculosis. Highly infectious nature of the pathogen requiring BSL3 facilities and its long generation time further add to complications. M. aurum has been proposed as an important model organism for high throughput screening of drugs and exhibits high genomic similarity with that of M. tuberculosis. Thus, the present study was undertaken to explore if M. aurum could be used as a surrogate organism for studies related to M. tuberculosis latent infection. M. aurum was subjected to in vitro conditions of oxygen depletion, lack of nutrients and acidic stress encountered by latent M. tuberculosis bacteria. CFU count of M. aurum cells along with any change in cell shape and size was recorded at regular intervals during the stress conditions. M. aurum cells were unable to survive for extended periods under all three conditions used in the study. Thus, our studies suggest that M. aurum is not a suitable organism to mimic M. tuberculosis persistent infection under in vitro conditions, and further studies are required on different species for the establishment of a fast growing species as a suitable model for M. tuberculosis persistent infection.

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Acknowledgments

Financial assistance provided by Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India (DST-INSPIRE Fellowship) to Mrs. Shivani Sood, is gratefully acknowledged. Authors are thankful to CDRI, Lucknow for providing the bacterial strain for study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Jaypee University of Information Technology, Waknaghat, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, 173234, India

    Shivani Sood, Anant Yadav & Rahul Shrivastava

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  1. Shivani Sood
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  2. Anant Yadav
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  3. Rahul Shrivastava
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Correspondence to Rahul Shrivastava.

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Sood, S., Yadav, A. & Shrivastava, R. Mycobacterium aurum is Unable to Survive Mycobacterium tuberculosis Latency Associated Stress Conditions: Implications as Non-suitable Model Organism. Indian J Microbiol 56, 198–204 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12088-016-0564-x

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