Rapid in vivo assessment of drug efficacy against Mycobacterium tuberculosis using an improved firefly luciferase.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

In vivo experimentation is costly and time-consuming, and presents a major bottleneck in anti-tuberculosis drug development. Conventional methods rely on the enumeration of bacterial colonies, and it can take up to 4 weeks for Mycobacterium tuberculosis to grow on agar plates. Light produced by recombinant bacteria expressing luciferase enzymes can be used as a marker of bacterial load, and disease progression can be easily followed non-invasively in live animals by using the appropriate imaging equipment. The objective of this work was to develop a bioluminescence-based mouse model of tuberculosis to assess antibiotic efficacy against M. tuberculosis in vivo.

Methods

We used an M. tuberculosis strain carrying a red-shifted derivative of the firefly luciferase gen

SUBMITTER: Andreu N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3743513 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature