Scientists have discovered a non-antibiotic way to treat the ‘staphylococcus aureus’ skin infection, a scourge of some cancer patients and a threat to hospitalized patients worldwide.
A laboratory study by researchers at the University of Copenhagen utilized an artificial version of the enzyme naturally produced by bacteriophages (virus bacteria), and used to eradicate it Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus aureus in a biopsy sample from a patient with cutaneous lymphoma.
“Staphylococci can be a huge and sometimes insoluble problem for people who are critically ill with cutaneous lymphoma. Staphylococcus aureus It’s resistant to antibiotics I will explain Immunologist Niels Ødum of the University of Copenhagen.
“That’s why we’re careful not to give everyone antibiotics because we don’t have to deal with more resistant bacteria. So finding new ways to treat these infections is key.” It’s important, it’s important to at least prevent it.” I will explain Ødum.
Staphylococcus aureus IThey are common inhabitants of our skin and nasal passages and are generally harmless. but it is Opportunistic pathogens: Occurs when the immune system is weakened from any kind of infection From minor skin infections such as boils and abscesses to life-threatening conditions such as pneumonia and sepsis.
Drug-resistant strains of bacteria are a serious and serious problem in the hospital environment. Staphylococcus aureus It enters the bloodstream during surgery or through medical devices such as catheters and bypasses the body’s first line of defense: the skin and mucosal barriers (runny nose).
People with weakened immune systems who visit hospitals for routine treatments such as chemotherapy also run the risk of picking up nasty “superbugs” that have become resistant to the mainstay antibiotics.
In particular, people with cutaneous lymphoma are highly susceptible to bacterial infections. CTCL, also called cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, is a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that begins with cancerous T cells that migrate to the skin. There, these rogue immune cells cause rashes and lesions before spreading to other parts of the body.
Staphylococcus aureus They excrete a substance called enterotoxin, which is thought to promote the progression of CTCL. Staphylococcus aureus It can quickly appear in skin lesions and make cancer symptoms worse.
strain of Staphylococcus aureus Something resistant to methicillin and other antibiotics is called MRSA, and hospitals are building some grounds Suppression of MRSA infectionsoon replaced by other drug-resistant superbugs.
So, in this study, Ødum and his colleagues experimented with a new class of antibacterial agents called endolysins.
Endolysins are enzymes naturally produced by bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria. After infection, bacteria chop up a molecule called peptidoglycan that forms a mesh-like scaffold in the bacterial cell wall, destroying the bacteria from within.
Each bacterial species has a unique peptidoglycan that can be selectively targeted by appropriate endolysins. In this study, one of the endolysins, XZ.700, was tested on skin samples taken from people with healthy skin and those with her CTCL.
“The great thing about this enzyme is that it’s designed to penetrate the cell wall. Staphylococcus aureus,” I will explain Emil Pallesen, lead author and immunology researcher at the University of Copenhagen.
“This allows us to target and kill harmful staphylococci while leaving harmless skin bacteria unharmed.”
In laboratory experiments, endolysin XZ.700 Staphylococcus aureus It blocked the tumor-promoting effects on laboratory-expanded malignant T cells isolated from CTCL patients.
Endolysin treatment also “completely” stopped Staphylococcus aureus From healthy skin colonized samples and lesional skin biopsies from CTCL patients.it also molted Staphylococcus aureus Colonies that had already colonized skin that had been biopsied.
“Our laboratory tests have shown that endolysins not only eradicate Staphylococcus aureus“From a skin sample, To tell Ødum, but they “also inhibit the ability to promote cancer growth.”
These lab-based experiments with skin biopsy samples in plastic dishes are far from treating skin infections and cancers in a real-world setting, but the results are promising.
Researchers hope that Endolysin XZ.700 can kill drug-resistant strains such as MRSA and even biofilms, dense collections of microorganisms notoriously difficult to treat. recently laboratory research suggesting that this might be possible Staphylococcus aureus Develops resistance to endolysins.
This last point is important. Bacteria are cunning microbes that are adept at finding new ways to circumvent and thwart antibiotic treatment faster than they can develop new drugs. More research is needed to really confirm whether endolysins succumb to the same bacterial agility or stand firm against staphylococcal infections.
In 2019, antibiotic resistance was registered as the third leading cause of death worldwide. The urgent need to find new therapies to combat drug-resistant bacteria is not just an issue for patients with cutaneous lymphoma, but a pressing global issue.
This research Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
