The tuberculosis lesion environment is highly complex. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) reside in various niches and their metabolism and other characteristics, including drug tolerance depend on the specific environmental characteristics of those niches. So-called persister bacteria refer to those that are difficult to eradicate with drug treatment and that may contribute to the long durations of TB treatment required for cure. Many in vitro models have been developed in attempts to mimic these niches with the objective of determining potential anti-TB compound activity in models that reflect M.tb’s characteristics in vivo.
Foamy macrophages Foam-M are characterized by lipid body accumulation induced by Mtb infection and they may be an important niche for Mtb during infection.
In this poster we:
- We describe the development of a robust 96 well plate Foamy macrophages assay designed to mimic this niche, and suitable for medium-high throughput evaluation of compound activity during drug discovery.
- We describe TB compounds activity in the foamy macrophage assay compared to other TB current assays
- We show that infection of foamy macrophage does not trigger an anti-inflammatory response in host cells