Antimycobacterial and PknB Inhibitory Activities of Venezuelan Medicinal Plants.

Global control and elimination of tuberculosis are hindered by the high prevalence of drug-resistant strains, making the development of new drugs to fight tuberculosis a public health priority. In this study, we evaluated 118 extracts from 58 Venezuelan plant species for their ability to inhibit the growth of mc6020, using the agar dilution method. Additionally, we determined the ability of these extracts to inhibit the activity of PknB protein, an essential serine/threonine kinase, using a high-throughput luminescent assay. Of the 118 extracts tested, 14 inhibited bacterial growth with a minimum inhibitory concentration ≤500 g/ml, and 36 inhibited the kinase activity with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration <200 g/ml. Five extracts inhibited growth and inhibited the activity of the kinase protein, suggesting that this could be the basis of their growth inhibition.