New
methodology allowed researchers to more easily investigate mechanisms of
infection and provide new insight into how pathogens can work together to cause
disease. Using the new tool, researchers confirmed a safer model for study of Brucella species, which cause a
potentially debilitating infectious disease in humans and cattle.
Brucellosis
is an infectious disease of livestock that may be transmitted to farm workers
or consumers of unpasteurized dairy products. Easy to spread and hard to
detect, the bacteria that cause the illness, Brucella species, are considered potential bioterror weapons. Yet,
precisely because Brucella species
are so dangerous to handle, research on this important disease-causing agent,
or pathogen, has lagged behind that of other infectious diseases.
Using
an innovative method they developed to study the infectious process,
investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) established a
safer way to study Brucella. In an
early test of the model, the research team observed a surprising and previously
undocumented interaction during the infectious process. The presence of another
pathogen appeared to improve the infectious potential of Brucella.
The
researchers' new technique creates the light-emitting bacteria by introducing
genes for fluorescent proteins into their genomes. The concept itself is not
new, but the genetic "tool kit" developed by Kirby and Kang greatly
streamlines the process by using easy-to-manipulate genes called transposons --
sometimes called jumping genes -- to quickly and safely label the bacteria.
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Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle