Scientists Find Potential Treatment For Streptococcal Infection

Scientists in Singapore have found a potential treatment against deadly streptococcal infections.

AsianScientist (Jan. 28, 2014) – Scientists in Singapore have found a potential treatment against deadly streptococcal infections.

Researchers from the NUS-HUJ-CREATE Inflammation Research Program discovered that the asparaginase enzyme arrests group A streptococcus (GAS) growth in human blood and blocks the proliferation of bacteria. These findings were published in the scientific journal Cell.

How GAS converts from benign colonizer of the human to a deadly one has intrigued many researchers in the field. To decipher this mystery, an international research team, led by Professor Emanuel Hanski of HUJ, discovered a novel mechanism that influences GAS virulence at the early steps of the infection.

When GAS adheres and infects the host’s cells, it delivers two streptolysin toxins – streptolysin O and streptolysin S – into these cells. These toxins impair the mechanism responsible for quality control of protein synthesis in the host, which in turn triggers a stress response, increasing the production of the amino acid asparagine. GAS senses the increased asparagine level and alters its gene expression profile.

The research team further discovered that asparaginase arrests GAS growth in human blood and in an animal model of human bacteremia, suggesting the potential use of asparaginase as a therapeutic agent against GAS.

The findings of this study suggest that understanding the metabolic changes occurring between the pathogen and its host during infection can lead to the development of effective treatments against infectious diseases.

“We predict that other Gram-positive bacterial pathogens, such as staphylococcus aureus, and clostridium botulinium, which possess toxins similar to streptolysin O and streptolsin S, may use similar mechanism to obtain metabolite from the host,” said Professor Hanski.

The article can be found at: Baruch M et al. (2014) An Extracellular Bacterial Pathogen Modulates Host Metabolism to Regulate Its Own Sensing and Proliferation.

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Source: National University of Singapore; Photo: NIAID/Flickr/CC.
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