Drug targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell wall synthesis: development of a microtiter plate-based screen for UDP-galactopyranose mutase and identification of an inhibitor from a uridine-based library

A microtiter plate assay for UDP-galactopyranose mutase, an essential cell wall biosynthetic enzyme of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, was developed. The assay is based on the release of tritiated formaldehyde from UDP-galactofuranose but not UDP-galactopyranose by periodate and was used to identify a uridine-based enzyme inhibitor from a chemical library.