Lorissa Smulan, PhD

Research Project:
Defining the Mitochondrial Sirtuins and Type I Interferon Axis in Tuberculosis

Grant Awarded:

Catalyst Award

Research Topics:

basic biologic mechanisms
gene expression transcription
immunology immunotherapy

Research Disease:

tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by infection with the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). TB is the leading cause of death worldwide. Treatment of TB is complicated due to the requirement of multiple drugs and length of treatment. It is important to identify immune factors contributing to disease progression for future development of therapies to treat TB. Progression of TB is strongly associated with increased levels of type I interferons, a family of proteins that play important roles in inflammation.

Sirtuin 3, a protein that is important for metabolism, is decreased in immune cells infected with Mtb. We have identified a novel link between sirtuin 3 and type I interferon production. We will investigate how sirtuin 3 modulates type I interferon production. We propose that increasing sirtuin 3 activity will prevent production of type I interferons during infection and identify sirtuin 3 as an attractive target for “host-directed therapies” for treatment of TB. This therapy does not fight TB itself, but targets proteins it needs to live and multiply.

Page last updated: October 3, 2023

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