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Previously decade, just one strain of Escherichia coli, or E. coli, is just about the main cause of microbe infections in women and also the elderly by invading the bladder and kidneys, based on research published today in the American Society for Microbiology’s open access journal mBio.
Besides becoming more resistant to antibiotics, the strain H30-Rx gained an unprecedented capability to spread in the urinary tract to the blood, leading to the most lethal form of microbe infections – sepsis- and posing a looming threat up to the more than 10 million Americans who annually suffer from urinary tract infections (UTIs).
This new study could help trace the evolutionary history of this superbug and possibly result in the growth and development of a vaccine, based on Lance B. Price, Ph.D., the study’s lead author. Price is professor of environmental and occupational health in the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS), and is an affiliate professor in the Pathogen Genomics Division from the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).
Previous research suggested that the ST131 number of E. coli C a family of many genetically related strains of bacteria – had independently gained potential to deal with antibiotics through separate genetic events. The ST131 group had been recognized as a significant supply of superbugs – microbes resistant to multiple antibiotics – among UTI bacteria. If true, the presence of a variety of resilient strains would prove a formidable threat with multiple methods for evading the defense mechanisms and treatment, according to the new study.
Using advanced genomic techniques, Price and collaborators – James R. Johnson from the Veterans Affairs Clinic and also the University of Minnesota, and Evgeni V. Sokurenko of the University of Washington School of Medicine – discovered that the ST131 strains represented genetic clones abruptly started out a single strain of E. coli.
By gaining mutations in two genes, a strain called H30 gave rise greater than a decade ago towards the H30-R clone, which became fully up against the then-wonder-drug known as Cipro. Right after, a new clone started out H30-R called H30-Rx, that is resistant against several extended-spectrum antibiotics, for example third-generation cephalosporins.
Using whole-genome sequencing – spelling out, so as, each molecule of DNA – researchers analyzed the genomes of E. coli samples from patients and animals in five countries over 44 years, 1967-2011. They created a family tree tracing how the superbug clones become caused by discrete genetic events.
“Astoundingly, we found that all the resistance might be traced to a single ancestor,” Price said. “Our research shows this superbug then took off, and today causes lots of drug-resistant infections.”
H30-Rx, appears to be much more adept than other E. coli at ascending in the bladder towards the kidneys and then in to the bloodstream, where it may be lethal, and also the study suggests that H30-Rx may be accountable for 1.5 million UTIs and thousands of deaths annually in the United States.
This study implies that, by concentrating on H30-Rx, researchers will dsicover a vaccine that may prevent many infections. Vaccines for highly resistant strains of superbugs could protect people from ever getting sick in the first place, Price said.
“This strain of E. coli spreads for every person and seems to be particularly virulent,” Johnson said. “This study may help us develop better tools to recognize, stop or prevent its spread by finding better ways to bar the transmission of the superbug, or by getting a diagnostic test that will help doctors identify this kind of infection early on – before it might possess the chance to turn lethal.”
Sokurenko added, “We now know that we’re handling a single enemy, and that by focusing on this strain we can have a substantial effect on this worldwide epidemic.”
The study, The epidemic of ESBL-producing Escherichia coli ST131 is driven by a single highly pathogenic subclone, H30-Rx, appears today in the peer-reviewed online-only scientific magazine mBio C the flagship journal from the American Society for Microbiology and also the American Academy of Microbiology.
On The web:
- George Washington University School of Public Health insurance and Health Services
