Targeting the messengers: Serine/threonine protein kinases as potential targets for antimycobacterial drug development.

The emergence of increasingly drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains has become a crucial public health concern. In order to effectively treat tuberculosis, it is imperative to find newer drug targets, which are important for the in vivo bacterial survival and persistence. Phosphorylation based signaling cascades modulated by eukaryotic-like serine/threonine protein kinases and phosphatase in M. tuberculosis, transduce extracellular stimuli to a cellular response ensuing pathogen's growth, persistence and pathogenesis. Of the 11 STPKs that M. tuberculosis genome encodes, three kinases, namely PknA, PknB and PknG and the sole serine/threonine phosphatase PstP are crucial for the intracellular survival of the bacteria. PknA and PknB regulates cell growth, cell wall synthesis and morphological changes during bacterial cell division; while PknG modulates metabolic changes in response to stress and aids in bacterial survival during latency like conditions. PstP functions to dephosphorylate STPKs and their substrates and hence is important at nearly all stages of infection. Here, we review the current knowledge on PstP, PknA, PknB and PknG based on the genetic, biochemical, and functional studies in M. tuberculosis physiopathology. We further explore the potential of these molecules as targets for therapeutic intervention and discuss the advancement made in the development of inhibitors against these targets. © 2018 IUBMB Life, 70(9):889-904, 2018.