Show I I searcher rc rings brink bacteria to the future of treatment i When he was for f r his IMS studying doctorate microbiology Pr in to Mark E E. E thought he knew lot Jot a about bacteria Then things got scary He discovered that bacteria can band together into sheets r When called they do I they alter their behavior They build j complex communities establish lines of communication and coordinate their actions Like ants the microbes find AA L power in numbers 4 y IC nasty ua ry Infections that should respond to antibiotics dont don't said They become 50 to times more resistant With drugs often useless against in the human body is trying to turn the tables on the slippery infections The assistant professor at the University of Maryland Dental School received million this month from the National Institutes of He Health for research into vaccines that might prevent Ii auty films nims from Irom forming in the first place Although the public rarely hears it in popular discussions of health issues the term tenn was coined in a 1978 Scientific American article by William now of the University of Southern California Dental School He used it to describe microbes that clump together on wet surfaces It came up in dentistry first said They called it plaque I just proposed that the 1 isn't C t r- r t in tit th A d t n L. L 1 1 L. L oJ n everywhere In fact are just about everywhere They coat everything from Alpine river rocks to neglected teeth Every year they cause billions of dollars of damage to ship hulls oil pipelines and machinery by corroding metal surfaces and clogging up the works These plaques often contain a variety of microorganisms including bacteria protozoa and algae suspended in slimy glue called polysaccharide that holds them together and binds them to surfaces When enough of the organisms have collected they undergo metabolic changes that make them better team players We tend to think of them as primitive single- single celled organisms said Phil Stewart the director of the Center for Engineering at Montana State University But there is a lot of cooperation and coordination comparable to something more like an ant colony It allows them to accomplish more than they could on their own vexing is me the ability of virulent bacterial infections to resist attack after forming a We could pump bleach into your system said and it probably wouldn't do anything That's saying something Chlorine bleach is the microbiologists microbiologist's ultimate weapon its it's used to disinfect the labs that house the worlds world's most dangerous germs genns Like soldiers hiding in a castle the bacteria inside the film are arc protected from drugs designed to kill them The cells are also starved for nutrients This makes them grow and divide slowly providing even more drug resistance since antibiotics often target fast- fast growing eel cells Is The stress also puts bacteria on the defensive causing them to release caustic acids and proteins They start freaking out ff said They turn on stress response genes that make them attack the antibiotic Compounding the problem the stress response tricks the natural immune system into using the wrong attack plan When and other white blood cells that form the body's police force arrive on the scene they're ambushed and destroyed by the arsenal of proteins and acids infections often return because antibiotics kill only the free-floating free or bacteria When a patient stops taking the drug new roaming free-roaming bacteria emerge from the and the infection spreads again Scientists estimate that 65 percent to 80 percent of chronic infections in industrialized nations linger on because of format formation on appear in patients with cystic fibrosis gum disease and chronic inner ear urinary tract and bone infections Medical devices such dental implants catheters artificial joints and heart valves are vulnerable to formation In his research ff has focused on on one e particularly bad actor that has received plenty of press YH II r J J L staphylococcus aureus I The antibiotic- antibiotic resistant bacteria kill about people in States every year according to the Because infections are difficult or impossible to eradicate once a is fully formed is searching for a away away away way to prevent the films from growing The trick he believes is to hone in on the odd behavior of the bacteria He has identified proteins the bacteria produce in abundance as they form a film and hopes to develop antibodies that will target those proteins Like an army attacking a half-built half fortress the antibodies would attack the immature and destroy it before its defenses are fully formed The antibodies come comein comein comein in and deactivate the proteins and can destroy the he said The immune cells could also come in safely then and attack as well To test his theories grows L' L 1 in m silicon tubing in in his lab at the dental school and looks for protein targets Anti vaccines he has developed have proven effective for treating rabbits with bone infections He hopes to move on to clinical trials in humans within four years he said He said a vaccine might be the best way to combat because the bacteria are arc so widespread Here Herein in the United States he said its hard to cork that bottle |