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The anti-mycobacterial potential of ibuprofen
1Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Shanxi University, 92 Wucheng Road, Taiyuan, 030006, China; Faculty of Medicine, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Dalian University of Technology, No. 2 Linggong Road, Dalian, 116024, China; Shandong Laboratory of Yantai Drug Discovery, Bohai Rim Advanced Research Institute for Drug Discovery, Yantai, 264000, China.
Background:
Ibuprofen (IBU) is a non-prescription analgesic drug from the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug class. It is widely used for treating pain, fever, and inflammation. Both the in silico and in vitro experiments were performed to determine the antibacterial potentials of the IBU against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb).
Methods:
The STITCH v.5 pipeline was used to analyze the interaction of IBU with the proteome of the Mtb H37Ra and H37Rv strains. The GFP-tagged Bacillus Calmette Guerin (BCG) and td-tomato-tagged Mtb H37Ra were used to determine the bacteriostatic and bactericidal activities of IBU. The IBU-treated THP-1-derived macrophages were infected by td-tomato-tagged Mtb H37Ra and wild-type BCG to analyze the effects of IBU on bacterial phagocytosis and apoptosis, respectively.
Results:
The in-silico study revealed that the IBU interacts with Mtb proteins primarily involved in cellular process, metabolism, and virulence, and targets four virulent proteins of Mtb, e.g., Cyp-123, Cyp-126, Cyp-130, and Cyp-139 in the cytochrome p450 system. The increasing concentrations of IBU showed significant bacteriostatic activity against Mtb H37Ra in vitro, where the 100 μg/ml and 200 μg/ml concentrations especially led to almost complete bacterial growth arrest. The IBU treatment does not affect BCG-induced apoptosis of THP-1-derived macrophages, but significantly enhances bacterial uptake, especially at 100 μg/ml and 200 μg/ml concentrations.
Conclusions:
The IBU enhances Mtb uptake by macrophages and exhibits direct bacteriostatic activity in vitro.
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