Aberdeen and St Andrews: New mechanism for attacking drug-resistant bacteria

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Scientists at Aberdeen and St Andrews universities in the UK have elucidated a new mechanism whereby bacteria protect themselves from environmental stress, which could lead to new ways of destroying antibiotic resistant strains such as MRSA.

The researchers have described for the first time how channels in bacterial cell walls act as pressure-release valves, opening when the pressure inside bacterial cells gets too high.

The leader of the Aberdeen team, Professor Ian Booth, said the channels perform a key role in cell survival. “We have been able to show how this channel opens and closes.

This understanding will play a major role in inhibiting the survival of bacteria and could have applications as basic as cleansing hospital equipment and wards or improving food safety

The research shows that the bacterial system is mechanical. The channel senses the pressure inside the bacterium, and then alters its shape to create an opening that releases the pressure, to prevent it building up and killing the bacterium.

“Not only is this a major step forward in scientific understanding of a fundamental process in biology but it paves the way for the development of new drugs against bacteria," says Professor Jim Naismith, who led the team from St Andrews.

“New chemicals designed to force channels to stay open or shut, are likely to kill or at the very least, greatly slow down the growth of bacteria. Slowing down the growth gives the body’s natural defences time to tackle its bacterial invader.”