Differential expression of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis heat shock protein genes in response to drug-induced stress.

Unlabelled: Heat shock proteins are essential in maintaining cellular protein function, especially during stress. Their influence in managing drug-induced stress in Tuberculosis is not clearly understood.

Aims: Study the expression of select genes of the DnaK/ClpB chaperone network to evaluate their role in stress response in Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical isolates during exposure to Isoniazid (INH) and Rifampicin (RIF).

Simultaneous Detection of Drug-resistant Mutations in and Determining their Role through Docking.

Unlabelled: A molecular method for diagnosis of drug-resistant Tuberculosis is Multiplex allele-specific PCR (MAS-PCR), which is more time-efficient, and its accuracy is studied using DNA sequencing. Also, understanding the role of mutations, when translated to protein, in causing resistance helps in better drug designing.

Aim: To study MAS-PCR in the detection of drug resistance in comparison to DNA sequencing in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and understand the mechanism of interaction of drugs with mutant proteins.

Detection of First-Line Drug Resistance Mutations and Drug-Protein Interaction Dynamics from Tuberculosis Patients in South India.

Background: Diagnosis of drug-resistant tuberculosis predominantly relies on culture-based drug susceptibility testing, which take weeks to produce a result and a more time-efficient alternative method is multiplex allele-specific PCR (MAS-PCR). Also, understanding the role of mutations in causing resistance helps better drug designing.

Aims: To evaluate the ability of MAS-PCR in the detection of drug resistance and to understand the mechanism of interaction of drugs with mutant proteins in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Copy number variations burden on miRNA genes reveals layers of complexities involved in the regulation of pathways and phenotypic expression.

MicroRNAs are involved in post-transcriptional down-regulation of gene expression. Variations in miRNA genes can severely affect downstream-regulated genes and their pathways. However, population-specific burden of CNVs on miRNA genes and the complexities created towards the phenotype is not known.