A group of biologist from University of California, San Diego discovers a latest mechanism that will permit the cells to fight class of toxins which came from various type of disease causing bacteria. Biologist believed that this study they made could give way in forming or formulating a new and more effective treatment for bacterial diseases, which killing or sickening million people. These bacterial diseases usually cause pneumonia, strep throat, scarlet fever and the likes.
The important achievement of this discovery is that the biologists were able to discover animal cells, may it be from roundworms or mammals, have innate defense mechanism to ward off certain bacteria that produce toxins so that they could form minute holes in the membranes of the cells they infect. According to scientists, they estimate that these so called pore performing bacterial toxins account for approximately one quarter of this what they coined as protein virulence factors that boost up the infection and severity of disease caused by bacteria.
One of the biologists explained that for the first time they are provided a sight of how the natural animal immune system responds in order to guard or protect itself from a major bacterial virulence system. Furthermore, in learning how this defense mechanism in human cells could be enhance and protect, people could be guarded from various types of serious bacterial infections.
These pore performing bacterial toxins are utilized by bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus, the bacteria that is responsible cause of hospital acquired infections. Another bacteria that used pore performing bacterial toxins is the Streptococcus pneumoniae. This bacterium is the responsible for million of cases of otitis media in children and hundred thousands cases of pneumonia. These toxins are also playing a major role in infections caused by bacterium known as Helicobacter pylori that causing ulcers.
Several years ago there are researchers discovered that the round worm known as C. elegans together with other nematodes could be destroyed by a pore performing toxin called as Cry5B. The said toxin is produced by the bacterium known as Bt, which happened to be used by farmers as natural pesticides in controlling the insect pest in crop.
Though this Cry5B could not injure human since it could not recognize human cells, it hurts the worms in the same way the pore performing toxins affects human. Later on, they found out that when this C. elegans is exposed to either low amount or dose of Cry5B toxin for a long period of time or a high dose of toxin for short period of time, the round worms able to survive. The researchers recognized this natural defense mechanisms to a pore performing toxin could be apply as well to human bacterial infections.
Now that scientists have idea of the biochemical mechanisms that help the cells to guard themselves against pore performing toxins, researchers in biomedical world can now start formulating drug against the rising tide of anti biotic resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and other bacteria that use pore-forming toxins in their caches. Read more