Editing Threonine (section)

==Exploration of L-Threonine for Tuberculosis==
With multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) remaining a public health crisis with a total of 1.25 million people dead worldwide from TB in 2023 alone, new treatment strategies for TB are critical.<ref name="WHO2025">[https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB).] Accessed April 13, 2025.</ref> TB is an airborne infection, spread via inhalation of airborne droplets that can remain suspended in the air for several hours, and can either be killed, remain in a latent stage, or become active. One previous paper researched the inhibitory effects of the downstream product L-threonine on the homoserine kinase (HSK) pathway in Escherichia coli. They found that the HSK pathway can be successfully inhibited via L-threonine since the pathway acts as a negative feedback loop, becoming inhibited once enough of the product is formed.<ref name="Theze1974">Théze J, Kleidman L, St Girons I. Homoserine kinase from Escherichia coli K-12: properties, inhibition by L-threonine, and regulation of biosynthesis. ''J Bacteriol.'' 1974;118(2):577–581. doi:[https://doi.org/10.1128/jb.118.2.577-581.1974 10.1128/jb.118.2.577-581.1974]</ref> Investigation of this pathway in TB may yield new insights into potential drug targets. Inhibiting the fatty acid synthesis pathway as well could serve as a potential drug target since this pathway is responsible for synthesizing mycolic acids, components necessary for formation of TB’s cell walls.<ref name="Kinsella2003">Kinsella RJ, Fitzpatrick DA, Creevey CJ, McInerney JO. Fatty acid biosynthesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Lateral gene transfer, adaptive evolution, and gene duplication. ''Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.'' 2003;100(18):10320–10325. doi:[https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1737230100 10.1073/pnas.1737230100]</ref> Coupling of the amino acid L-threonine with a common TB drug that inhibits fatty acid synthesis, like ethionamide, could yield a new treatment strategy for tuberculosis.