Mycobacterium tuberculosis  known as ‘Captain of death’, a  pathogenic bacterium    is responsible for the death of 2 million people death each year.  and Multi-drug resistance characteristics  of this strain is the major cause of this devastating condition. In an article entitled “Identification of anti-tuberculosis agents that target ribosomal protein interactions using a yeast two-hybrid system” published in PNAS on 8th of October, 2012 (doi:10.1073/pnas.1110271109), the lead Author  Yuan Lin with thirteen  researchers have reported this findings. They have applied two sophisticated research tools named yeast two-hybrid system and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) assay to identify two new compounds named T766 and T054 that show strong bactericidal activity against is Mycobacterium tuberculosis.  According to the authors, these compounds block the interaction of two bacterial ribosomal proteins L12 and L10 which play important role in ribosomal function of M. tuberculosis. First they determined the interaction of these two proteins by yeast two-hybrid system as well as   identified  the two compounds named T766 and T054 that bind L12 to block L12–L10 interaction by using SPR assay. They also characterized these compounds which not only inhibit protein synthesis of M. smegmatis, a strain close to TB, but also show low toxicity against mice and other bacterial strains. So these two compounds might give a deep insight and raise a new hope for the treatment against multi-drug resistance tuberculosis. For detailed information, please click here.  [Summarized by Sudip Biswas, Research Associate, Plant Biotechnology Laboratory, Dhaka University.]