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PLoS Biology Issue Image | Vol. 18(12) January 2021

Correlative light electron ion microscopy reveals in vivo localisation of bedaquiline in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected lungs

Correlative light, electron, and ion microscopy (CLEIM) offers huge potential to track the intracellular fate of antibiotics, with organelle-level resolution. However, a correlative approach that enables subcellular antibiotic visualisation in pathogen-infected tissue is lacking. Here, Fearns et al. developed correlative light, electron, and ion microscopy in tissue (CLEIMiT) and used it to identify the cell type-specific accumulation of an antibiotic in lung lesions of mice infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Using CLEIMiT, the authors found that the anti-tuberculosis drug bedaquiline is localised not only in foamy macrophages in the lungs during infection but also accumulates in polymorphonuclear cells. The image shows a photomontage in four different pseudo-colors of micro-computed tomography of whole lung from a mouse aerosol-infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Image Credit: Antony Fearns and Angela Rodgers

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Correlative light electron ion microscopy reveals in vivo localisation of bedaquiline in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected lungs

Correlative light, electron, and ion microscopy (CLEIM) offers huge potential to track the intracellular fate of antibiotics, with organelle-level resolution. However, a correlative approach that enables subcellular antibiotic visualisation in pathogen-infected tissue is lacking. Here, Fearns et al. developed correlative light, electron, and ion microscopy in tissue (CLEIMiT) and used it to identify the cell type-specific accumulation of an antibiotic in lung lesions of mice infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Using CLEIMiT, the authors found that the anti-tuberculosis drug bedaquiline is localised not only in foamy macrophages in the lungs during infection but also accumulates in polymorphonuclear cells. The image shows a photomontage in four different pseudo-colors of micro-computed tomography of whole lung from a mouse aerosol-infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Image Credit: Antony Fearns and Angela Rodgers

https://doi.org/10.1371/image.pbio.v18.i12.g001