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July 6 (UPI) – New research has identified a protein that feeds the bacteria that causes gonorrhea, which could open the door to new antibiotics and even a vaccine.
The results, published Thursday in PLOS Pathogens are an important step in the fight against the microbe, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, which is considered a "superbug" because of its resistance to all antibiotics for the treatment of infections [19659002] Infection, a badually transmitted disease that affects 78 million people each year. can be extremely damaging if it is not treated or if it is poorly treated. It can lead to endometritis, pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, epididymitis and infertility. And it can increase the risk of blindness in babies born to infected mothers.
"Infections are very often silent," said Aleksandra Sikora, a researcher at the Oregon State University, who led the study in a press release. "Up to 50 percent of infected women do not have symptoms, but these asymptomatic cases can still have very serious consequences on reproductive health, miscarriage or premature labor."
The Sikora Team at the OSU / OHSU College The Pharmacy and Ann Jerseys Laboratory at the University of Health Sciences Uniformed Services in Bethesda, Maryland, worked together to discover the new lipoprotein that gonorrhea uses to beat the body's first line of immune defense.
lysozymes that sabotage bacteria by breaking down the cell wall. Lysozymes are found in the epithelial cells, which constitute the tissue outside the organs and in the body cavities, and in the phagocytic cells that protect the body by consuming foreign particles and bacteria.
Gram-negative bacteria, which are characterized by a cellular envelope that has a protective outer membrane, have developed ways to pbad lysozymes. The Sikora team, however, discovered another type of protein that fights lysozyme in the gonorrhea virus.
Scientists can now examine this new protein, called SliC, to target candidates for new antibiotics or vaccines. SliC stands for lysozyme inhibitor exposed on the surface of type c lysozyme. If the lysozyme inhibitor itself can be inhibited, the ability of the bacteria to cause infections will be reduced, say the researchers.
The team used mice infected with gonorrhea to study the function of SliC. They verified SliC expression one, three and five days and determined that the protein was essential for bacterial colonization because of its anti-lysozyme role.
"This is the first time that an animal model is used to demonstrate a role of lysozyme inhibitor in gonorrhea infection," Sikora said. "Together, all our experiments show the importance of the lysozyme inhibitor."
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