ArticleInfection and immunity2012
Urease activity represents an alternative pathway for Mycobacterium tuberculosis nitrogen metabolism.
Article in Infection and immunity, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 83 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evaluation of Novel Isatin-Schiff Base Derivatives: Monoamine Oxidase Inhibition and Antimicrobial Assessment.ChemMedChem · 2026Article
- Structural landscape of bacterial urease: implications for catalyst and adaptation.Archives of microbiology · 2026Review
- Shaping death: how the microbiome regulates tumour cell demise and therapy response.Cancer metastasis reviews · 2026Review
- IFN-γ and IL-6 as Key Predicting Biomarkers for Active TB Among PLWH: Results from Four Machine Learning Methods.International journal of general medicine · 2026Article
- Selective inhibition of NikA mediated Ni(II) import in E. coli by the Indium(III)-EDTA complex.Metallomics : integrated biometal science · 2025Article
- Genomic Biosurveillance of the Kiwifruit Pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae Biovar 3 Reveals Adaptation to Selective Pressures in New Zealand Orchards.Molecular plant pathology · 2025Article
- Synthesis and biological evaluation of pyridylpiperazine hybrid derivatives as urease inhibitors.Frontiers in chemistry · 2024Article
- Proteomics ofJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Synthesis, Characterization, and Biological Evaluation of 2-(N-((2'-(2H-tetrazole-5-yl)-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4yl)-methyl)-pentanamido)-3-methyl Butanoic Acid Derivatives.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Fighting Tuberculosis: In Search of a BCG Replacement.Microorganisms · 2022Review
- Inhibition of Urease by Hydroquinones: A Structural and Kinetic Study.Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2022Article
- Article
- CRISPR Interference Reveals That All-mBio · 2022Article
- Structural characterization of the urease accessory protein UreF from Klebsiella pneumoniae.Acta crystallographica. Section F, Structural biology communications · 2022Article
- Activity- and Enrichment-Based Metaproteomics Insights into Active Urease from the Rumen Microbiota of Cattle.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Chelerythrine Chloride: A Potential Rumen Microbial Urease Inhibitor Screened by Targeting UreG.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
- Genotypic and phenotypic diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex genotypes prevalent in West Africa.PloS one · 2021Article
- Mycobacterium tuberculosis curli pili (MTP) is associated with significant host metabolic pathways in an A549 epithelial cell infection model and contributes to the pathogenicity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society · 2020Article
- The structure-based reaction mechanism of urease, a nickel dependent enzyme: tale of a long debate.Journal of biological inorganic chemistry : JBIC : a publication of the Society of Biological Inorganic Chemistry · 2020Review
- Pipeline for Targeted Meta-Proteomic Analyses to Assess the Diversity of Cattle Rumen Microbial Urease.Frontiers in microbiology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Urease represents a critical virulence factor for some bacterial species through its alkalizing effect, which helps neutralize the acidic microenvironment of the pathogen. In addition, urease serves as a nitrogen source provider for bacterial growth. Pathogenic mycobacteria express a functional urease, but its role during infection has yet to be characterized. In this study, we constructed a urease-deficient Mycobacterium tuberculosis strain and confirmed the alkalizing effect of the urease activity within the mycobacterium-containing vacuole in resting macrophages but not in the more acidic phagolysosomal compartment of activated macrophages. However, the urease-mediated alkalizing effect did not confer any growth advantage on M. tuberculosis in macrophages, as evidenced by comparable growth profiles for the mutant, wild-type (WT), and complemented strains. In contrast, the urease-deficient mutant exhibited impaired in vitro growth compared to the WT and complemented strains when urea was the sole source of nitrogen. Substantial amounts of ammonia were produced by the WT and complemented strains, but not with the urease-deficient mutant, which represents the actual nitrogen source for mycobacterial growth. However, the urease-deficient mutant displayed parental colonization profiles in the lungs, spleen, and liver in mice. Together, our data demonstrate a role for the urease activity in M. tuberculosis nitrogen metabolism that could be crucial for the pathogen's survival in nutrient-limited microenvironments where urea is the sole nitrogen source. Our work supports the notion that M. tuberculosis virulence correlates with its unique metabolic versatility and ability to utilize virtually any carbon and nitrogen sources available in its environment.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.