Except for COVID-19, active tuberculosis (TB) ranks as the deadliest infectious disease, caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacterium. Although cultures and molecular tests can detect M. tuberculosis in sputum and other body fluids, researchers, foundations, and diagnostic companies are developing simpler next-generation tests that should lead to earlier TB diagnosis and treatment. These “point-of-care” diagnostic tests rely on monoclonal antibodies that bind to antigens present in M. tuberculosis.

This past July in Trends in Microbiology, Jacqueline Achkar, M.D., and colleagues provided the first review of the increasingly important monoclonal antibodies being developed against the M. tuberculosis surface lipoglycan lipoarabinomannan (LAM) and its related capsular glycan arabinomannan (AM). The authors describe old and new techniques for generating those monoclonal antibodies and, for each monoclonal, how specifically it binds to those antigens.

Dr. Achkar is professor of medicine, and of microbiology & immunology,  co-director of the Global Health Center, and associate director for translational research at the Clinical Research Training Program (CRTP) at Einstein, and an attending physician at Montefiore Medical Center.

Albert Einstein College of Medicine has intellectual property protection for a portfolio of Dr. Achkar’s technologies related to novel monoclonal antibodies against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and is actively seeking licensing partners to further develop and commercialize them. Interested parties can contact the Office of Biotechnology and Business Development at biotech@einsteinmed.edu.