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Updated: Jun 27, 2026

Isolation of F1-ATPase from the Parasitic Protist Trypanosoma brucei
Published on: January 22, 2019
Selectivity of TMC207 towards mycobacterial ATP synthase compared with that towards the eukaryotic homologue
Anna C Haagsma1, Rooda Abdillahi-Ibrahim, Marijke J Wagner
1Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
The diarylquinoline TMC207 kills Mycobacterium tuberculosis by specifically inhibiting ATP synthase. We show here that human mitochondrial ATP synthase (50% inhibitory concentration [IC(50)] of >200 microM) displayed more than 20,000-fold lower sensitivity for TMC207 compared to that of mycobacterial ATP synthase (IC(50) of 10 nM). Also, oxygen consumption in mouse liver and bovine heart mitochondria showed very low sensitivity for TMC207. These results suggest that TMC207 may not elicit ATP synthesis-related toxicity in mammalian cells. ATP synthase, although highly conserved between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, may still qualify as an attractive antibiotic target.
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