Intracellular Mycobacterium leprae Utilizes Host Glucose as a Carbon Source in Schwann Cells

Abstract

Leprosy remains a major problem in the world today, particularly affecting the poorest and most disadvantaged sections of society in the least developed countries of the world. The long-term aim of research is to develop new treatments and vaccines, and these aims are currently hampered by our inability to grow the pathogen in axenic culture. In this study, we probed the metabolism of M. leprae while it is surviving and replicating inside its primary host cell, the Schwann cell, and compared it to a related pathogen, M. tuberculosis , replicating in macrophages. Our analysis revealed that unlike M. tuberculosis , M. leprae utilized host glucose as a carbon source and that it biosynthesized its own amino acids, rather than importing them from its host cell. We demonstrated that the enzyme phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase plays a crucial role in glucose catabolism in M. leprae . Our findings provide the first metabolic signature of M. leprae in the host Schwann cell and identify novel avenues for the development of antileprosy drugs.