Mycobacterium tuberculosis methyltransferases as alternative strategies to combat drug resistant tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is a health concern resulting in 10.8 million cases every year. In 2024, TB had the highest fatalities second only to COVID-19. Global TB management has become difficult due to rise of multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB. Therefore, novel approaches must be developed to fight with M.tb infection. Studies on many strategies like pathogen-centric, host-directed therapeutics, antimicrobial peptides, nano-based drug delivery, and more are still being explored to develop novel therapeutics. One such important target i.e., pathogen associated Methyltransferases (Mtases) used along above-mentioned strategies can be advantageous as targeting Mtases are involved in various cellular processes like mycolic acid synthesis, lipid metabolism, immune evasion, and DNA repair. Mtases are a class of enzymes that transfer the methyl group to their substrate. There are 121 Mtases that are encoded by the genome of M.tb are essential for both the occurrence of drug-resistant tuberculosis and bacterial survival. This review has covered various approaches in treating drug-resistant tuberculosis, with a particular emphasis on Mtases for the creation of innovative treatments for drug development. Thus, Targeting Mtases could give more effective treatments against MDR and XDR-TB.