Bacteria Glue Pointer to superbug vaccine
| A sticky glue secreted by drug-resistant bacteria could help scientists develop an effective vaccine against “superbugs”, US researchers told a conference on Wednesday.
The sticky substance is a complex sugar called PNAG which the researchers said was a promising vaccine target because animal studies have shown it produces a protective immune response when manipulated chemically. The bacteria produces the substance when growing a biofilm that protects them from antibiotics, Gerald Pier of Harvard Medical School told the Society for General Microbiology’s meeting in Dublin. Methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus, or MRSA, infections can range from boils to more severe infections of the bloodstream, lungs and surgical sites. Most cases are spread in hospitals, nursing homes or other health care facilities. MRSA is a growing problem worldwide and can cause life-threatening and disfiguring infections and can often only be treated with expensive, intravenous antibiotics. Hospital superbugs can make poisons similar to that of rattlesnake venom to beat our natural defences. The toxins are produced by communities of the superbug Pseudomonas aeruginosa called biofilms. Because the chemically altered forms of the sugar have produced the right kind of immune response in animals, the researchers hope tests in humans will show which of the different variants is most effective, Pier added. “The antibody is being manufactured to start tests in humans in about 12 to 18 months,” Pier said. “An effective antibody treatment for Staph infections could have a major benefit for anyone who enters a hospital or works in the community and is at risk.” Source : Times Of India |
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