Combined chemical genetics and data-driven bioinformatics approach identifies receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors as host-directed antimicrobials

Antibiotic resistance poses rapidly increasing global problems in combatting multidrug-resistant (MDR) infectious diseases like MDR tuberculosis, prompting for novel approaches including host-directed therapies (HDT). Intracellular pathogens like Salmonellae and Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) exploit host pathways to survive. Only very few HDT compounds targeting host pathways are currently known. In a library of pharmacologically active compounds (LOPAC)-based drug-repurposing screen, we identify multiple compounds, which target Receptor Tyrosine Kinases (RTKs) and inhibit intracellular Mtb and Salmonellae more potently than currently known HDT compounds. By developing a data-driven in silico model based on confirmed targets from public databases, we successfully predict additional efficacious HDT compounds. These compounds target host RTK signaling and inhibit intracellular (MDR) Mtb. A complementary human kinome siRNA screen independently confirms the role of RTK signaling and kinases (BLK, ABL1, and NTRK1) in host control of Mtb. These approaches validate RTK signaling as a drugable host pathway for HDT against intracellular bacteria.