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from the nuke-them-from-orbit-is-often-suggested dept.
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Researchers find way to kill pathogen resistant to antibiotics
This bacterium is one of many that have evolved a system that allows them to acquire difficult-to-access iron from the human body. Iron is essential for bacterial growth and survival, but in humans, most of it is held up within the 'haem' complex of haemoglobin. To get hold of it, P. aeruginosa and other bacteria secrete a protein, called HasA, which latches onto haem in the blood. This complex is recognized by a membrane receptor on the bacterium called HasR, permitting haem entry into the bacterial cell, while HasA is recycled to pick up more haem.
Bioinorganic chemist Osami Shoji of Nagoya University and collaborators have found a way to hijack this 'haem acquisition system' for drug delivery. They developed a powder formed of HasA and the pigment gallium phthalocyanine (GaPc), which, when applied to a culture of P. aeruginosa, was consumed by the bacteria.
"When the pigment is exposed to near-infrared light, harmful reactive oxygen species are generated inside the bacterial cells," explains Shoji. When tested, over 99.99% of the bacteria were killed following treatment with one micromolar of HasA with GaPc and ten minutes of irradiation. The strategy also worked on other bacteria with the HasR receptor on their membranes, but not on ones without it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 21 2019, @11:44AM
but I thought that most innovation comes from the U.S.? or at least that's how the U.S. pharmaceutical companies tell it to bolster their higher prices.
Wait, Nagoya University is in Japan. It was also Japan that made a lot of breakthroughs with stem cells.
Sad thing is people like Trump are dumb enough to believe the nonsense that the pharmaceutical companies tell him when they are asked why does the U.S. have to pay more than everyone else for healthcare.