Health & Medicine - Posted by Stephen Rouse-Cardiff on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 14:49 - 1 Comment 
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(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Cystic fibrosis bacteria fight MRSA
Antibiotics from Burkholderia, a group of bacteria that can cause severe lung infections in people with the genetic disorder cystic fibrosis, are effective against MRSA and even other cystic fibrosis infecting bacteria. (Credit: Cardiff U.)
CARDIFF U. (UK) — A bacterium that can cause severe lung infection in people with cystic fibrosis is effective in fighting a variety of drug-resistant microbes, including MRSA.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
Using forensic fingerprinting tests to genetically identify Burkholderia, Eshwar Mahenthiralingam of Cardiff University screened it for antibiotics active against other bacteria, particularly drugs with the potential to kill other bacteria that infect cystic fibrosis patients.
Mahenthiralingam’s team discovered that around one quarter of Burkholderia bacteria have extremely strong antibiotic activity on multidrug-resistant pathogens such as MRSA. One particular strain, Burkholderia ambifaria, was found to produce two very potent antibiotics active on resistant bacteria, in particular Acinetobacter baumanii.
The chemical structures of the antibiotics, called enacyloxins, were determined by Gregory Challis and Lijiang Song at the University of Warwick, demonstrating that they belong to one of the most successful families of natural product drugs, the polyketides.
Other examples of polyketides include erythromycin, which is used to cure many bacterial infections, and doxorubin, used as an anti-cancer drug. “The combination of enzymes used by Burkholderia to make the enacyloxins is very unusual, Challis says. “Our insights into this process should allow us to use cutting edge synthetic biology techniques to produce novel enacyloxin analogs with improved pharmaceutical properties.”
The research is published in the journal Chemistry and Biology.
“Burkholderia are soil bacteria like Streptomyces, which are the source of most of our current antibiotics,” says Mahenthiralingam. ”
Our research therefore offers real hope of a completely new source for the identification and engineering of highly potent antibiotics. With antibiotic resistant bacteria causing great suffering around the world, these new sources are urgently needed.”
More news from Cardiff University: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/
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1 Comment
Stwart Jenssen
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My girlfriend has cystic fibrosis and 3 weeks ago suffered a collapsed lung. She was treated with 1 tube then 2 tubes in the chest as the 1 wasn’t working. After another week she had an x-ray and the doctor said he feared her lung would collapse again if they removed the tubes so they decided to operate. The next day she went and had the operation and then was put on a ventilator for the next 48 hours. In that time she caught pneumonia. After 5 days of antibiotics I was told she was making improvements and getting stronger but then 2 days later was informed that the antibiotics had stopped working and to expect the worst. However now she has been put on a higher and stronger dosage of antibiotics and has been told it is clearing the infection. However I’m still extremely worried as I was told before she was improving.
Stwart Jenssen
Pharmaspider.com