DENVER, Mar 16, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- U.S. medical scientists say they have
discovered a new method to prevent bacterial infections by using the body's own
enzymes.
Dr Quinn Parks and colleagues at Denver's National Jewish Health Hospital said
they used enzymes against products of the body's own defense cells to prevent
Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria from building a protective biofilm that enables
the bacteria to avoid both the body's immune mechanisms and antibiotics.
When the body's defense cells, called neutrophils, attack P. aeruginosa, the
cell contents -- including a protein called F-actin and the cell's DNA -- are
released, Parks said. P. aeruginosa uses those cell proteins as a scaffold to
build a protective biofilm that makes such infections very difficult to treat.
P. aeruginosa biofilms cause disease in burns, wounds and contact lens
infections and are particularly prevalent in the lungs of cystic fibrosis
patients.
"We specifically targeted the F-actin protein with a negatively charged peptide
and the DNA with the enzyme DNase, which both prevented and disrupted the
formation of P. aeruginosa biofilms in the presence of human neutrophils," Parks
said. "These results suggest a new combined therapeutic strategy for the
treatment of P. aeruginosa infections.
The study appears in the journal Medical Microbiology.
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Copyright 2009 by United Press International