Ac-93253 inhibits intracellular growth of mycobacteria in human macrophages by inducing apoptosis in mitochondrial-dependent manner

Recent studies suggest that apoptosis in macrophages plays a significant role in host defence against intracellular pathogens like viruses, fungi, protozoan, and bacteria, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb). It is still unclear if micromolecules inducing apoptosis could be an attractive approach to combat the intracellular burden of M. tb. Hence, the present study has investigated the anti-mycobacterial effect of apoptosis mediated through phenotypic screening of micromolecules. Through MTT and trypan blue exclusion assay, 0.5 μM of Ac-93,253 was found to be non-cytotoxic even after 72 h of treatment in phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) differentiated THP-1 (dTHP-1) cells. Significant regulation in the expression of various pro-apoptotic genes like Bcl-2, Bax, and Bad and the cleaved caspase 3 was observed upon treatment with a non-cytotoxic dose of Ac-93,253. Ac-93,253 treatment also leads to DNA fragmentation and increased phosphatidylserine accumulation in the plasma membrane's outer leaflet. Further, Ac-93,253 also effectively reduced the growth of mycobacteria in infected macrophages, Z-VAD-FMK a broad-range apoptosis inhibitor significantly brought back the mycobacterial growth in Ac-93,253 treated macrophages. These findings suggest apoptosis may be the probable effector response through which Ac-93,253 manifests its anti-mycobacterial property.