Polyamide capsules via soft templating with oil drops—1. Morphological studies of the capsule wall

Poly(terephthalamide) microcapsules can be reproducibly and easily prepared by interfacial polycondensation around emulsion droplets in water. Oil drops of cyclohexane/chloroform mixture stabilized with poly(vinyl alcohol) containing terephthaloylchloride serve as soft template. The interfacial polycondensation starts immediately after addition of an amine mixture (hexamethylenediamine/diethylenetriamine). Light and scanning electron microscopy prove the formation of capsules with size distribution in the range from a few up to 100 µm depending on particular composition of the reaction mixture. The morphology of the capsule wall is characterized by precipitated particles. If instead of pure organic solvents a reactive oil phase is used as template, the capsules can serve in subsequent reactions as templates for the synthesis of composite particles. In this way, styrene can be radically polymerized inside the capsule leading to composite capsules. The capsule morphology is determined by the partition of all components between all phases

Targeting protein biotinylation enhances tuberculosis chemotherapy.

Successful drug treatment for tuberculosis (TB) depends on the unique contributions of its component drugs. Drug resistance poses a threat to the efficacy of individual drugs and the regimens to which they contribute. Biologically and chemically validated targets capable of replacing individual components of current TB chemotherapy are a major unmet need in TB drug development. We demonstrate that chemical inhibition of the bacterial biotin protein ligase (BPL) with the inhibitor Bio-AMS (5'-[N-(d-biotinoyl)sulfamoyl]amino-5'-deoxyadenosine) killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the bacterial pathogen causing TB. We also show that genetic silencing of BPL eliminated the pathogen efficiently from mice during acute and chronic infection with Mtb Partial chemical inactivation of BPL increased the potency of two first-line drugs, rifampicin and ethambutol, and genetic interference with protein biotinylation accelerated clearance of Mtb from mouse lungs and spleens by rifampicin. These studies validate BPL as a potential drug target that could serve as an alternate frontline target in the development of new drugs against Mtb