Certain pneumonia-causing bacteria produce compounds that help other pathogenic bacteria to spread through the lungs.
Bret Sellman at MedImmune, a biotechnology firm in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and his colleagues infected mice with a variety of bacterial species, either individually or in combination with Staphylococcus aureus, which can cause respiratory and other infections. Mice that were co-infected with S. aureus had higher levels of both microbe species in their lungs, and were more likely to die than animals infected with a single pathogen. The team found that a protein produced by S. aureus, called α-toxin, aids the growth of several bacterial species by impairing immune-cell function. Early treatment with an antibody against α-toxin helped to eliminate S. aureus and prevented other pathogens from multiplying.
The authors suggest that antibody-based treatments targeting a single bacterial species could help some people who are infected with multiple pathogens.
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Bacterial toxins invite infections. Nature 531, 279 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/531279b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/531279b