The tuberculosis necrotizing toxin kills macrophages by hydrolyzing NAD.
Sun, J., Siroy, A., Lokareddy, R.K., Speer, A., Doornbos, K.S., Cingolani, G., Niederweis, M.(2015) Nat Struct Mol Biol 22: 672-678
- PubMed: 26237511 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nsmb.3064
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
4QLP - PubMed Abstract: 
Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) induces necrosis of infected cells to evade immune responses. Recently, we found that Mtb uses the protein CpnT to kill human macrophages by secreting its C-terminal domain, named tuberculosis necrotizing toxin (TNT), which induces necrosis by an unknown mechanism. Here we show that TNT gains access to the cytosol of Mtb-infected macrophages, where it hydrolyzes the essential coenzyme NAD(+). Expression or injection of a noncatalytic TNT mutant showed no cytotoxicity in macrophages or in zebrafish zygotes, respectively, thus demonstrating that the NAD(+) glycohydrolase activity is required for TNT-induced cell death. To prevent self-poisoning, Mtb produces an immunity factor for TNT (IFT) that binds TNT and inhibits its activity. The crystal structure of the TNT-IFT complex revealed a new NAD(+) glycohydrolase fold of TNT, the founding member of a toxin family widespread in pathogenic microorganisms.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Department of Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.