Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 8, 2026
Assay Development for High-Throughput Drug Screening Against Mycobacteria
Published on: October 25, 2024
Evaluation of Mycobacterium smegmatis as a possible surrogate screen for selecting molecules active against
Vinita Chaturvedi1, Namrata Dwivedi, Rama P Tripathi
1Drug Target Discovery and Development Division, Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, India. vinita_chaturvedi@cdri.res.in
Abstract:
New and better drugs are needed for tuberculosis (TB), particularly for the multi-drug resistant (MDR) disease. However, the highly infectious nature of MDR Mycobacterium tuberculosis restricts its use for large scale screening of probable drug candidates. We have evaluated the potential of a screen based on a 'fast grower' mycobacterium to shortlist compounds which could be active against MDR M. tuberculosis. Sensitivity profiles of M. smegmatis, M. phlei and M. fortuitum as well as MDR clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis were determined against anti-TB drugs isoniazid and rifampicin. Among the three fast growers, M. smegmatis was found to display a profile similar to MDR M. tuberculosis. Subsequently we evaluated the performance of M. smegmatis as a 'surrogate' screen for 120 compounds which were synthesized for anti-TB activity. Fifty of these molecules were active against M. tuberculosis H(37)Rv at a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) cutoff of
