Publications by authors named "S Willcocks"

Article Synopsis
  • Macrophage cellular metabolism during tuberculosis (TB) infection is important because of the changes caused by different species, specifically their effects on macrophage bioenergetics.
  • Recent research indicates that TB infection leads to a shift in macrophage metabolism towards aerobic glycolysis, similar to the pro-inflammatory response seen with LPS in M1 macrophages, but there are notable differences in metabolic profiles between mice and humans.
  • This study compared the metabolic responses of bovine and human macrophages to TLR ligands, finding that while both species showed similar respiratory profiles, human macrophages had a unique reaction to PPD, enhancing both basal respiration and glycolysis, which could explain varying inflammatory responses in zoonotic diseases.
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Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the main causative agent of tuberculosis (TB)-an ancient yet widespread global infectious disease to which 1.6 million people lost their lives in 2021. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been an ongoing crisis for decades; 4.

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Human tuberculosis (TB) is caused by various members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) complex. Differences in host response to infection have been reported, illustrative of a need to evaluate efficacy of novel vaccine candidates against multiple strains in preclinical studies. We previously showed that the murine lung and spleen direct mycobacterial growth inhibition assay (MGIA) can be used to assess control of ex vivo mycobacterial growth by host cells.

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A series of imidazole and triazole diarylpyrazole derivatives were prepared using an efficient 5-step synthetic scheme and evaluated for binding affinity with (Mtb) CYP121A1 and antimycobacterial activity against Mtb H37Rv. Antimycobacterial susceptibility was measured using the spot-culture growth inhibition assay (SPOTi): the imidazoles displayed minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) in the range of 3.95-12.

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