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Bacterial pathogens

A spoonful of sugar could be the medicine

Nature volume 546, pages 479–480 (2017)Cite this article

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Pili are filamentous bacterial structures that promote adhesion to host cells. It emerges that a small molecule that inhibits this adhesion can prevent colonization of the mouse gut by a pathogenic bacterium. See Letter p.528

The mammalian intestine is a natural habitat for trillions of bacteria, including harmless species called commensals and potentially pathogenic species. However, long-term persistence is a challenge for these resident bacteria, which must resist expulsion by waves of peristalsis — the process that pushes the intestinal contents downstream. The ways in which pathogenic bacteria adhere to host cells at sites of infection have been extensively investigated1, but little is known about how commensal bacteria cling to mucosal surfaces in the gut. Spaulding et al.2 report on page 528 that uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC), a bacterium that is a commensal in the gut but pathogenic in the bladder, persists in the intestine thanks to filamentous protein complexes called pili that project from the bacterium and promote its adhesion to the gut wall. The authors also identify a sugar derivative that can combat pilus-mediated adhesion.

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Figure 1: A small molecule clears pathogens from the gut.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Immunology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, 10065, New York, USA

    Hea-Jin Jung

  2. Infectious Diseases Service in the Department of Medicine and the Center for Microbes, Inflammation and Cancer, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center,

    Hea-Jin Jung & Eric G. Pamer

Authors
  1. Hea-Jin Jung
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  2. Eric G. Pamer
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Correspondence to Eric G. Pamer.

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Jung, HJ., Pamer, E. A spoonful of sugar could be the medicine. Nature 546, 479–480 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature23084

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