New drug to counter hospital infections

[Guest guest]

Dear Group,

This article was especially interesting for me because I have been diagnosed

with pseudomonas many times in my sinuses and treated with antibiotics. It is

rare to have it in your sinuses, it is usually found in your intestinal track.

After reading the entire article, I felt especially lucky to have survived so

many attacks. It is good to know that science has a better handle on how to

exterminate it and what makes it grow and have a life of its own. We tend to

concentrate on a few staph germs like MRSA, but there are many more out there,

just waiting to latch on to the person with a very low immune system. How many

times have you heard that people don't die of leukemia, but of infections, so be

on alert and read the entire article, Lottie

ScienceDaily (Apr. 9, 2009) - Lack of an adequate amount of the mineral

phosphate can turn a common bacterium into a killer, according to research to be

published in the April 14, 2009, issue of the Proceedings of the National

Academies of Science. The findings could lead to new drugs that would disarm the

increasingly antibiotic-resistant pathogen rather than attempting to kill it.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the most serious hospital-acquired pathogens. A

common cause of lung infections, it is also found in the intestinal tract of 20

percent of all Americans and 50 percent of hospitalized patients in the United

States. It is one of the hundreds of bacteria that colonize the human intestinal

tract, usually causing no apparent harm. It might even be beneficial to its

host. Once the host is weakened by an illness, surgical procedure or

immunosuppressive drugs, however, P. aeruginosa can cause infection,

inflammation, sepsis and death. " It's almost as if the bacterium sense when to

strike, " said Alverdy, corresponding author of the study and professor of

surgery at the University of Chicago Medical Center. " That should come as no

surprise since the bacteria are smart, having been around for 2 billion years. "

Bacteria seek phosphate as an important nutrient, Alverdy explained. And rather

than try to look for it in the blood steam of critically ill patients, where

they would encounter armies of antibiotics and disease-fighting white blood

cells, they find it inside organ tissues. This process damages and sometimes

even kills their host.

Experiments with mice showed that the harm caused when P. aeruginosa becomes

activated to express lethal toxins inside the intestinal tract can be mitigated

by providing excess phosphate. The research findings could lead to a

pharmaceutical product that would restore healthy phosphate levels in the

intestines of such stressed and compromised patients, Alverdy said.

" Antibiotics attempt to kill harmful bacteria, but in the process they often

kill beneficial bacteria, " said Olga Zaborina, an associate professor at the

University of Chicago's Department of Surgery and another key researcher in this

study. " A more sensible approach to fighting infectious diseases may be to try

to understand the circumstances that provoke a microbe to cause harm in the

first place and then find ways to pacify them without destroying them. "

Containment on a case-by-case basis might be a more effective and longer-lasting

strategy than a scorched earth policy, Alverdy said. Midway Pharmaceuticals,

which Alverdy founded in 2005, is developing a pipeline of non-antibiotic

compounds that contain or disarm specific bacteria.

Appreciation of the subtle mechanisms in pathogens that colonize the intestinal

tract of critically ill patients has important implications for the design of

phosphate-based compounds that might prevent P. aeruginosa and other pathogens

from turning lethal, the researchers concluded.

Despite the use of powerful antibiotics, P. aeruginosa remains a leading cause

of sickness and death among hospitalized patients who have undergone surgery or

have reduced immunity. If the bacterium attacks critical body organs such as the

lungs, urinary tract and kidneys, it is likely to be fatal. P. aeruginosa

thrives on moist surfaces, so it is often found on catheters, causing

cross-hospital infections. It is also implicated in a common form of dermatitis

associated with poor hygiene and inadequate maintenance of hot tubs.

Adapted from materials provided by University of Chicago Medical Center, via

EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS. Much more of this article can be found at this

website:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090408145546.htm