Bacteria produce proteins to take out
specific competitors. One of these proteins can kill the hospital bacterium
Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Microbial geneticists have unraveled how this protein
launches its attack and ensures that the bacteria die very quickly. In the long
term, these proteins hold potential for new antibiotic cocktails.
One type of these proteins -- LIpA
bacteriocins -- is highly effective in eliminating the hospital bacterium
Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This hospital bacterium can be life-threatening for
patients with burn wound or cystic fibrosis. The infections it causes are often
hard to fight because Pseudomonas bacteria are resistant to many of the
antibiotics used today.
Protein antibiotics can be part of the
solution in this case. But, until recently, it wasn't clear how the LIpA
protein kills the Pseudomonas hospital bacterium.
See:
Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle