2i1u

Publication Abstract from PubMed

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a facultative intracellular parasite of alveolar macrophages. M. tuberculosis is able to propagate in harsh environments within cells such as phagocytes, despite being exposed to reactive oxygen and nitrogen intermediates. The thioredoxin redox system is conserved across the phyla and has a well characterized role in resisting oxidative stress and influencing gene expression within prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. M. tuberculosis thioredoxin (MtbTrx) has similar functions in redox homeostasis and it has recently been shown that alkyl hydroperoxidase C is efficiently reduced to its active form by MtbTrxC, supporting this notion. To address whether the MtbTrx has similar features to other thioredoxin structures and to examine the opportunities for designing drugs against this target, MtbTrxC has been crystallized and its structure determined to 1.3 A resolution. Unexpectedly, the structure demonstrates an interesting crystal packing in which five C-terminal residues from the MtbTrxC fold insert into a groove adjacent to the active site. A very similar interaction is observed in structures of human thioredoxins bound to peptides from the target proteins NF-kappaB and Ref-1.

Structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis thioredoxin C.,Hall G, Shah M, McEwan PA, Laughton C, Stevens M, Westwell A, Emsley J Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. 2006 Dec;62(Pt 12):1453-7. Epub 2006, Nov 23. PMID:17139080^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.