Revealing What Makes Bacteria Life-threatening
Published:23 Apr.2024 Source:University of Queensland
Queensland researchers have discovered that a mutation allows some E. coli bacteria to cause severe disease in people while other bacteria are harmless, a finding that could help to combat antibiotic resistance. Professor Mark Schembri and Dr Nhu Nguyen from The University of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience and Associate Professor Sumaira Hasnain from Mater Research found the mutation in the cellulose making machinery of E. coli bacteria. The mutation gives the affected E. coli bacteria the green light to spread further into the body and infect more organs, such as the liver, spleen and brain.
Bacteria produce many substances on their cell surfaces that can stimulate or dampen the immune system of the host. In models that replicate human disease, the team showed that the inability to produce cellulose made the bacteria more virulent, so it caused more severe disease, including infection of the brain in meningitis and the bladder in UTIs.
Their finding helps explain why certain types of E. coli become more dangerous and provides an explanation for the emergence of different types of highly virulent and invasive bacteria. E. coli was the most dominant pathogen associated with bacterial antibiotic resistance.