Irritating . Candida albicans , the fungus that causes yeast infections.
The old saying "put a thief to catch a thief" is best known as the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 film To Catch a Thief . But with a twist, it's also a good description of a new technique to fight against common infections: set a microbe to catch a microbe. By orchestrating common bacteria to produce microbicides, researchers hope to find a first line of defense against infections of all kinds.
all bacteria are bad. Some live safely and on humans, including one called strain Streptococcus gordonii than that normally found in the mouth. To supplement this easy living microbe and arm themselves against pathogens, a team of researchers led by microbiologist Luciano Polonelli the University of Parma in Italy changed S. gordonii so it secretes antibodies . Imitations of antibodies the action of a "killer toxin" naturally produced by certain strains of yeast, and destroys microbes such as Candida albicans , a fungus that causes vaginal yeast infections; Pneumocystis carinii , which causes a kind of pneumonia often deadly for AIDS patients; strains and multi-resistant tuberculosis drugs.
To test whether the engineered microbe could fight against the disease, the researchers infected vaginally with rats Candida . They then introduced vaginal colonies established engineering S. gordonii in eight rats, and microbes cleared the infection in 75% of animals. None of the untreated animals recovered from infection. This makes the microbe as effective as flucanozole, an antifungal drug commonly used to treat yeast infections. And since microbes produce antibodies continuously, they also prevent Candida infections. Antifungal drugs, however, are used to fight against established infections.
In principle, the same technique could be used to develop bacteria that could repel all kinds of infections, said immunologist Larry Zeitlin Epicyte Pharmaceutical Inc. of San Diego. But obtaining regulatory approval to release genetically modified bacteria will be difficult, he said. "It is a really smart idea," Zeitlin said the new technique, "but whether it will pan out is difficult to predict."
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Technical Information Candida albicans , the University of Minnesota
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