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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Tuberc
Sec. Pathogen and Host Biology of Tuberculosis
Volume 2 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/ftubr.2024.1432880
This article is part of the Research Topic Rising Stars in Tuberculosis and Mycobacterial Diseases: 2023 View all articles

Role of Glutamine metabolism in tuberculosis pathogenesis: A mini review

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States
  • 2 Johns Hopkins Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) has remained one of the major infectious disease killers for generations and generations. In 2023 alone, this ancient disease was responsible for the death of 1.4 million individuals and has infected 10.6 million people. With the ever-evolving multi-and extremely resistant Mtb strains, the need for novel and effective drugs requiring shorter treatment regimens represents an urgent medical need for the development of new drugs. Over the last two decades, the field of host-directed therapy as a potential novel avenue for new approaches to TB treatment, either as a mono or adjuvant therapy, has garnered increasing attention. Among many host-directed targets, host immunometabolism has emerged as one of the most attractive targets for developing new host-directed therapies. As one of the most successful bacterial pathogens, Mtb has evolved several mechanisms to modulate numerous host metabolic pathways, including glycolysis, glutaminolysis, Kreb cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation. This mini review will focus on glutamine metabolism and its emergence as a potential target for treating tuberculosis (TB). In the last several decades, the role of glutamine metabolism in cancer and neurological disorders has been extensively studied. However, the association of glutamine metabolism with infectious disease has remained underappreciated. The aim of this review is to not only discuss the current knowledge in the field but also the existing knowledge gap that needs further exploration.

    Keywords: Tuberculosis, Host-directed therapies, glutamine metabolism, Immunometabolism, infectious diseases

    Received: 14 May 2024; Accepted: 26 Jun 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Parveen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Sadiya Parveen, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States

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