Transcriptomic response of Mycobacterium tuberculosis to artemisinin, Artemisia annua extract, and Artemisia afra extract

We sought to determine the transcriptomic impacts of artemisinin, Artemisia annua extract, and Artemisia afra extract on M. tuberculosis. Log phase cultures were treated with lethal doses for four hours or with inhibitory or sub-inhibitory doses for 24 hours. RNA was collected from untreated controls at the same timepoint. Overall design: M. tuberculosis strain mc26230 (H37Rv ?RD1 ?panCD) was treated with artemisinin or with dichloromethane extracts of A. annua or A. afra at three different doses. A lethal dose (2X MIC) was applied for four hours, and inhibitory (MIC or 1.33X MIC) and sub-inhibitory doses (0.5X MIC) were applied for 24 hours. Untreated cultures were harvested after 4 and 24 hours for comparison. All treatments were done in quadruplicate.