| dc.description.abstract | Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) is an important drug or biochemical probe target. (i) For every protein,
a drug target is coded for by an RNA that could equally be targeted; (ii) many pathogenic
organisms including viruses have RNA genomes that could be potentially targeted. (iii) it is now
well established that many new generation antibiotics are targeted at ribosomes which are
effective drug targets to treat bacterial infections. Despite the critical role that RNA plays in
biology and thus as a potential therapeutic and chemical biology target, only a small number of
RNA drug targets have been developed and exploited. The objective of this study was thus to
develop rational methods to exploit Mycobacterium tuberculosis RNA as a drug target. To
accomplish this objective, we developed a method to isolate and label Mycobacteria tuberculosis
ribosomal Ribonucleic Acid (rRNA) transcripts, as well as a study design for identifying all
small molecules, or drugs, that bind the RNA with high affinity and specificity developed. This
study has enabled the development of an rRNA probe that can be used for screening potential
small molecules that target Tuberculosis (TB) rRNA. The long term goal is to develop a RNA
motif-ligand database that can be mined against RNA sequences to rationally design small
molecules that specifically target RNAs. This study showed that it is possible to target antibiotics
to certain RNA structures. This was evident from the colour development that showed that there
are sites on RNA that participate in specific interactions with antibiotics. | en_US |
