Activity of Tubercidin Against and Nontuberculosis Mycobacteria

Tubercidin is an adenosine analogue that has been shown to exhibit good activity against some tumours and parasites. In this study, the activity of tubercidin was evaluated against (Mtb) and nontuberculosis Mycobacteria (NTM). For determining the MICs of tubercidin, 23 fully drug-sensitive (DS) Mtb strains, 33 multi-drug resistance tuberculosis (MDR-TB) strains, 29 pre-extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (pre-XDR-TB) strains, 21 extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) strains, 17 rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) and nine slowly growing mycobacteria (SGM) references strains were tested by microplate-based Alamar Blue assay (MABA) method. The results indicate that tubercidin has high activity against some drug-resistance Mtb strains and NTM reference strains, which warrants further investigation on the actions of tubercidin and its derivatives as potential drugs for mycobacterial infections.