Burkholderia pseudomallei isocitrate lyase is a persistence factor in pulmonary melioidosis: implications for the development of isocitrate lyase inhibitors as novel antimicrobials.

ABSTRACT: Burkholderia pseudomallei, the causative agent of melioidosis, has often been called the great "mimicker," and clinical disease due to this organism may include acute, chronic, and latent pulmonary infections. Interestingly, chronic pulmonary melioidosis is often mistaken for tuberculosis, and this can have significant consequences, as the treatments for these two infections are radically different. The recurrent misdiagnosis of melioidosis for tuberculosis has caused many to speculate that these two bacterial pathogens use similar pathways to produce latent infections. Here we show that isocitrate lyase is a persistence factor for B. pseudomallei, and inhibiting the activity of this enzyme during experimental chronic B. pseudomallei lung infection forces the infection into an acute state,

SUBMITTER: van Schaik EJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2747945 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature