Patent ID: 6833249
Filing Date: 2004-12-21
Classification: C12Q,Y10S

Abstract:
A method of screening mycolic acid biosynthesis inhibitors useful as anti-microbial agents by quantifying the amount of mycolic acid produced by bacteria in the presence and absence of a test compound or extract, said method comprising:a. growing separate cultures of the said bacteria in the presence and absence of said test compound or extract for time duration ranging between 40-60 hours, b. lyophilizing each culture to obtain a bacterial pellet, c. extracting mycolic acid from the pellet, d. dissolving extracted mycolic acid obtained from each pellet in hexane to obtain mycolic acid solution, e. adding said solution to carbol-fuschin dye in the ratio ranging between 1:4 to 4:1 (v/v), f. shaking the product of step (e) vigorously to obtain a pink color mycolic acid-dye complex as an upper layer, g. quantifying said mycolic acid spectrophotometrically at a wavelength ranging between 490-500 nm, and h. determining degree of inhibition of mycolic acid biosynthesis in the test compound treated bacterial culture.