<italic>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</italic> biofilm matrix and potential drug targets and treatment strategies

Abstract

As one of the most successful pathogens, Mycobacterium tuberculosis adopts distinct mechanisms to survive drug exposure and to relapse. One example of such a mechanism is by generating persisters. Abundant evidence indicates that the generating persisters of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is influenced by their ability to grow as surface-associated multicellular communities called biofilms. Therefore, the research on the biofilm composition will contribute to the development of new antituberculosis drugs. The extracellular matrix of Mycobacterium tuberculosis biofilm is primarily composed of extracellular polysaccharide, as well as protein, DNA and lipid. This paper describes the composition of Mycobacterium tuberculosis biofilm matrix, based on which we discuss potential drug targets and treatment strategies, hoping to shed light on the biological function of Mycobacterium tuberculosis biofilm matrix.