Study: Disease-Causing Bacteria Can Stand Up, Walk

October 11, 2010

By Ronnie Koenig Oct 11th 2010 1:05PM

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It may seem like something out of a science fiction movie, but researchers

recently discovered that antibiotic-resistant bacteria not only sickens people

but has the capacity to " stand up " and " walk. "

A team of UCLA researchers found that bacterial biofilms, structured aggregates

of bacteria that live on surfaces, use appendages called type IV pili, which act

as legs, to move around quickly and forage more effectively.

Bacterial biofilms cause many drug-resistant infections and impact human health

in multiple ways. Cystic fibrosis, for example, is a disease in which patients

die from airway bacterial biofilm infections that are resistant to antibiotics.

The " walking " occurs in the initial stages of biofilm formation, and the

researchers are hopeful that this discovery will aid in finding different

methods to fight the infections the bacteria, called Pseudomonas aeruginosa,

cause. P. aeruginosa also causes skin, eye and gastrointestinal infections.

" Bacteria exist in two physiological states: the free-swimming, single-celled

planktonic state and the surface-mounted biofilm state, a dense, structured

community of cells governed by their own sociology, " said Gerard Wong, a

professor of bioengineering at the UCLA Henry i School of Engineering and

Applied Science and at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, in a

statement.

" Bacteria in biofilms are phenotypically different from free-swimming bacteria

even though they are genomically identical. As part of their adaptation to a

surface and to the existence of a community, different genes are turned up and

down for bacteria in biofilms, leading to drastically different behavior, " he

said.

The study appears in the current issue of the journal Science. Research was

funded by the National Institutes of Health under the American Recovery and

Reinvestment Act, the National Science Foundation and the Cystic Fibrosis

Foundation. Wong and his researchers describe the walking motility mechanism as

being partly responsible for the lethal infections in cystic fibrosis.

While in the past graduate students had to look at cells manually, a new

technology was employed for this research, in which the team was able to track

the movements of multiple cells using search engines and computer programs that

allowed them to analyze data more quickly.

" This represents a big advance in the way microscopes are used, " said Wong.

The researchers are hopeful that their discovery will lead to new and better

ways to treat diseases and infections that are now resistant to antibiotics.

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