Health & Medicine
Scientists Reprogram E. Coli to Battle Disease-Causing Microbes
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: Oct 03, 2013 11:51 AM EDT
The bacteria, E. coli, is notorious for making people sick. Yet it turns out this microbe may not be all bad. Scientists have reprogrammed E. coli to make it seek out and fight other disease-causing pathogens. The findings could be huge for battling infections in the future and could be a way to treat antibiotic resistant microbes, which are a growing health problem in hospitals across the United States.
Biofilm infections are particularly difficult to treat. The bacteria hide away under a protective barrier of sugars, DNA and proteins. Because of this shield, the bacteria are very resistant to conventional therapies. In addition, overuse of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture have made some bacteria, such as MRSA, shrug off traditional treatments as they become resistant to antibiotics. In fact, it's estimated that about 2 million Americans become sick every year from this type of bacteria. That's why scientists decided to investigate ways to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
In order to accomplish this feat, the researchers reprogrammed E. coli to sense Pseudomonas aeruginosa by using a novel genetic circuit. This bacteria can form biofilms and causes hospital-acquired infections in the lungs and gut. Yet the reprogrammed E. coli can counter this bacteria. It swims directly toward P. aeruginosa and then launches an attack with an antimicrobial peptide and an enzyme that breaks down biofilms. Essentially, the researchers turned E. coli into a "gun-for-hire" that can sense an infection and then kill off the disease-causing microbes.
That's not to say that this technique is perfected. While it worked on the microbe P. aeruginosa, scientists would still need to design the bacteria to attack other infections. Even so, this engineering technique could be essential for battling hard-to-treat infections that can take hold in the lungs, bladder and on implanted medical devices.
The findings are published in the journal ACS Synthetic Biology.
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First Posted: Oct 03, 2013 11:51 AM EDT
The bacteria, E. coli, is notorious for making people sick. Yet it turns out this microbe may not be all bad. Scientists have reprogrammed E. coli to make it seek out and fight other disease-causing pathogens. The findings could be huge for battling infections in the future and could be a way to treat antibiotic resistant microbes, which are a growing health problem in hospitals across the United States.
Biofilm infections are particularly difficult to treat. The bacteria hide away under a protective barrier of sugars, DNA and proteins. Because of this shield, the bacteria are very resistant to conventional therapies. In addition, overuse of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture have made some bacteria, such as MRSA, shrug off traditional treatments as they become resistant to antibiotics. In fact, it's estimated that about 2 million Americans become sick every year from this type of bacteria. That's why scientists decided to investigate ways to treat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
In order to accomplish this feat, the researchers reprogrammed E. coli to sense Pseudomonas aeruginosa by using a novel genetic circuit. This bacteria can form biofilms and causes hospital-acquired infections in the lungs and gut. Yet the reprogrammed E. coli can counter this bacteria. It swims directly toward P. aeruginosa and then launches an attack with an antimicrobial peptide and an enzyme that breaks down biofilms. Essentially, the researchers turned E. coli into a "gun-for-hire" that can sense an infection and then kill off the disease-causing microbes.
That's not to say that this technique is perfected. While it worked on the microbe P. aeruginosa, scientists would still need to design the bacteria to attack other infections. Even so, this engineering technique could be essential for battling hard-to-treat infections that can take hold in the lungs, bladder and on implanted medical devices.
The findings are published in the journal ACS Synthetic Biology.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone