Drug-resistant bacteria found to trick immune system

WASHINGTON - Drug-resistant bacteria called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, may be able to first lure and then destroy immune system cells when they are the most vulnerable, researchers said on Sunday.

The study may help explain why MRSA spread outside of hospitals are harder to fight and seem to be spreading more easily.

But the findings may also lead to new and better antibiotics to fight the bacteria, the researchers reported in the journal Nature Medicine.

"This elegant work helps reveal the complex strategy that S. aureus has developed to evade our normal immune defenses," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a statement.

"Understanding what makes the infections caused by these new strains so severe and developing new drugs to treat them are urgent public health priorities."

The NIAID's Michael Otto and colleagues found that some strains on MRSA secrete a compound called phenol-soluble modulin or PSM. It attracts immune system cells called neutrophils, the researchers found, and then blows them up in a process called lysis.

S. aureus is common and usually only causes pimples or boils, although infections can spread to surrounding tissue.

MRSA is treatable only with a few antibiotics. It is common in hospitals, where it can killed weakened patients...


Via Reuters

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