Mycobacterium tuberculosis beta-ketoacyl acyl carrier protein synthase III (mtFabH) assay: principles and method

Fatty acid biosynthesis is one of the relatively newer targets in antibacterial drug discovery. The presence of distinct fatty acid synthases (FAS) in mammals and bacteria and the fact that most bacterial FAS enzymes are essential for viability make this a very attractive antimicrobial drug target. The enzyme beta-ketoacyl ACP synthase (KASIII or FabH) is the key enzyme that initiates fatty acid biosynthesis in a type II dissociated FAS. This enzyme catalyzes the condensation of acyl CoA and malonyl ACP (acyl carrier protein) to form a beta-ketoacyl ACP product, which is further processed to form mature fatty acids that are involved in various essential cellular processes and structures like phospholipid biosynthesis, cell wall formation, etc. Herein we describe a new assay for the Mycobacterium tuberculosis FabH (mtFabH) enzyme involved in a key initiation step in the synthesis of mycolic acids, which are an integral component of the cell wall. The assay eliminates the need for the cumbersome washing steps or specialty scintillation proximity assay beads and the preparation of acyl carrier proteins required in other assay formats. This discontinuous assay involves the reduction of radiolabled long-chain beta-ketoacyl CoA product to its dihydroxy derivative, which partitions into a nonpolar phase for quantitation, while the reduced radiolabeled substrate derivative remains in the aqueous phase.