L-ALANINE DEHYDROGENASE OF MYCOBACTERIUM MARINUM

摘要

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease which kills more than 3 million people every year. Although both a vaccine and various methods of diagnosis and treatment are available the efficacy of these measures is in urgent need of improvement, given that the number of new cases is again on the rise. Research focuses, among other things, on the characterization of antigens secreted in the early stages of the infection as they constitute the first point of contact of the immune system with the pathogen. The 40 KD-antigen discussed in this article is present DOLLAR I(in vivo) as a hexamer and, despite its high molecular weight and lack of a signal sequence, is present extracellularly after only a few days of growth. Functionally it is an L-alanine dehydrogenase and reacts with the monoclonal antibody HBT-10 directed against this protein. HBT-10 was the first known antibody specific to a protein of M.tuberculosis which did not cross-react with the vaccine strain M.bovis BCG.