Bacteria are experts at evolving resistance to antibiotics. One resistance strategy is to cover their cell walls in sticky and gooey biofilm that antibiotics cannot penetrate. A new discovery could put a stop to this strategy.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria are experts in evolving new strategies to avoid being killed by antibiotics.
One such bacterium is Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is naturally found in soil and water, but also hospitals, nursing homes and similar institutions for persons with weakened immune systems are home for strains of this bacterium. As many P. Aeruginosa strains found in hospitals are resistant to most antibiotics in use, science is forced to constantly search for new ways to kill them.
Now, at team of researchers from Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Department of Clinical Microbiology, have discovered a weakness in P. Aeruginosa with the potential to become the target for a new way to attack it. The team has published their findings in the journal Microbiology Spectrum. The authors are Clare Kirkpatrick, Magnus Z. Østergaard, Flemming D. Nielsen and Mette H. Meinfeldt.
By Birgitte Svennevig