DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): New drugs are needed against tuberculosis (TB) for three major reasons. The first reason is because the rate of cure with the present drugs is very slow. Secondly, increasing co-infection of HIV and Mycobacterium tuberculosis is occurring and treatment with present drugs results in harmful HIV/TB drug interactions. Thirdly, is the increasing prevalence of M. tuberculosis resistant to the present drugs. In a TB drug development program, we are targeting the formation of the cell wall of M. tuberculosis, a proven drug target. dTDP-rhamnose is a required biosynthetic precursor for TB cell wall formation. dTDP-rhamnose is not found in humans. Two of the enzymes which act sequentially for its formation are dTDP-6-deoxy-D-xylo-4-hexulose 3,5-epimerase (RmlC) and dTDP-6-deoxy-L- lyxo-4-hexulose reductase (RmlD). These enzymes have been shown to be essential for the growth of M. smegmatis and M. tuberculosis. The crystal structures of both have been obtained for proteins from non-TB bacterial sources and RmlC has been determined for the M. tuberculosis protein. Moreover TB RmlC has been obtained with the substrate mimic, dTDP-rhamnose, bound in the active site. Both RmlC and RmlD have been over-expressed in active form and a microtiter plate based assay based on the conversion of dTDP-6-deoxy-D-xylo-4-hexulose to dTDP-rhamnose with the concomitant oxidation of NADPH to NADP has been developed. The enzymes are balanced so that an inhibitor of either enzyme will be detected. The assay has been shown to be robust and reproducible. Herein we request that this assay be used to screen for inhibitors of RmlC and/or RmlD by the MLSCN and the resulting hits be optimized in concert with our lab and with our X-ray crystallographer and medicinal chemist collaborators. The purpose of this project is ultimately to develop new drugs against tuberculosis. These drugs are badly needed because of resistant strains of tuberculosis, because the treatment time needs to be decreased, and because co-infection of TB and HIV-AIDS is difficult to treat. The immediate purpose of the project is to find compounds that have the potential to be developed into new drugs because they inhibit enzymes required for the formation of the cell wall of the tuberculosis bacterium.