Encyclopedia of Experiments: Immunology
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Transcript
Take a multi-well plate containing serial dilutions of the test compound, an aminoglycoside antibiotic.
Add a suspension of Mycobacterium tuberculosis — a pathogenic bacterium — into the wells and incubate.
In the cytoplasm, the test compound binds to the mycobacterial 30S ribosomal subunit, inhibiting normal protein synthesis and eventually leading to mycobacterial death.
Post-incubation, add resazurin — a weakly-fluorescent water-soluble dye, to the cultures. Incubate.
Inside viable metabolically active mycobacteria, dehydrogenase enzymes reduce blue-colored resazurin to a pink-colored fluorescent resorufin.
Using a fluorescence plate reader, measure the resorufin fluorescence intensity in the wells.
A low fluorescence intensity value with increasing test compound concentrations suggests its cytotoxic effects against the mycobacteria.
