Determining the molecular pathways responsible for the anti-mycobacterial effects of NSAIDs

Dr Ray Cursons,

University of Waikato

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, NSAIDS, have inhibitory effects on Mycobacterium avium. The inhibitory effect is bacteriostatic but when combined with anti mycobacterial drugs such as clarithromycin can have a sterilizing effect. Just how these NSAIDS affect M avium is unknown so an experiment to determine their mechanism of activity was undertaken. Three cultures of Mycobacterium avium (strain 6) were treated with three different NSAIDS for 3 hours and their RNA isolated for analysis of mycobacterial gene expression. The three M. avium RNA transcriptomes analysed were treatment with:-30mg/ml of aspirin,-30 mg/ml of ibuprofen or-30 mg/ml of carprofen. The table below outlines the total number of RNA  sequence reads, the number of genes found relative to the reference genome of M. avium strain 104 and the percentage of genes.


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