Viennese biochemists are on the trail of a new way to successfully combat the dangerous bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Infections with the hospital bacteria are very dangerous, especially for patients with a previously weakened immune system.
The team led by Thomas Böttcher of the University of Vienna reports in the journal “Communications Chemistry” on the detection of certain substances that the bacteria, which is largely resistant to antibiotics, apparently produce to stimulate an inflammatory messenger substance in human cells .
It was already known that the bacteria coordinate their attacks on each other using a signaling chemical called “2-alkylquinolone”. Böttcher and his team suspected that the pathogens could also use their fat metabolism to produce other, similar compounds. In fact, the scientists have now been able to prove that the bacteria also produces “hydroxylated 2-alkylquinolone.”
“Inflammatory messenger substance is activated”
This opens additional possibilities for him: “We have been able to demonstrate that a relatively low concentration of the ‘hydroxylated 2-alkylquinolone’ is sufficient to activate the inflammatory messenger IL-8 in human cells. This indicates that Pseudomonas aeruginosa modulates the host’s immune response,” lead author Viktoriia Savchenko said in a broadcast from the University of Vienna on Tuesday.
In the course of further analysis of these processes, the researchers hope to find new approaches to treating patients who are carriers of the pathogen.
Source: Krone
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