{"id":22683,"date":"2017-11-17T14:09:26","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T19:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=22683"},"modified":"2022-03-16T12:21:55","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T16:21:55","slug":"queens-belfast-university-of-vienna-treatment-superbug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/queens-belfast-university-of-vienna-treatment-superbug\/","title":{"rendered":"Treatment for Superbug \u2018Could Lie Within Our Bodies\u2019 Natural Defenses\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers from Queen\u2019s University Belfast and the University of Vienna have <\/span>recently discovered<\/span><\/a> that the body\u2019s natural defenses could be used to treat <\/span>Klebsiella pneumoniae<\/span><\/i>, a bacteria resistant to antibiotics. <\/span><\/p>\n

The discovery could not have come at a better time, as <\/span>this week — November 13-19 — is <\/span>World Antibiotic Awareness Week<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Antibiotic resistance is a growing threat around the world, with an estimated <\/span>23,000 American lives<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>700,000 lives worldwide<\/span><\/a> lost each year as a result of bacterial infections resistant to current antibiotic treatments. The situation is so dire that in February, the World Health Organization declared an <\/span>urgent need for new antibiotics<\/span><\/a> to treat 12 families of bacteria, including <\/span>Klebsiella pneumoniae<\/span><\/i>, that have become increasingly resistant to antibiotics.<\/span><\/p>\n

Klebsiella <\/span><\/i>is a bacteria that can cause a <\/span>number of infections<\/span><\/a>, including pneumonia, <\/span>bloodstream infections, wound or surgical site infections, and meningitis. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Klebsiella pneumoniae<\/span><\/i> is of particular concern as it can cause infections such as bladder infections and pneumonia and has mortality rates of 25-60 per cent,\u201d Professor Jose Bengoechea from the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine at Queen\u2019s University Belfast and one of the lead researchers said in a statement. “Antibiotics that were previously used to treat these infections are no longer effective meaning treatment options for common illnesses are becoming increasingly limited.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In their study, the researchers found that interferons, or naturally produced signaling proteins found within our bodies, are fighting back against the <\/span>Klebsiella<\/span><\/i> bacteria<\/span>. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The research revealed that immune cells arrived at the site of infection to join forces and communicate to eradicate <\/span>Klebsiella <\/span><\/i>during lung infections. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis work has uncovered that one family of interferons mediates a cross-talk between two cell types of our immune system (macrophages and natural killer cells) to mediate the production of another member of the interferons family, interferon gamma,\u201d said Bengoechea. \u201cThis molecule boosts the activation of several antibacterial mechanisms of our immune system, including phagocytosis of bacteria by macrophages leading to its destruction.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Instead of targeting the pathogen itself, the research suggests that future therapies to treat <\/span>Klebsiella <\/span><\/i>may work to target the immune system. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe might consider using interferons as treatment to boost the activation of our defences,\u201d Bengoechea said. \u201cInterferons are in clinical use for the treatment of other diseases.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

While the discovery may be groundbreaking, the work is still preliminary and the researchers have stressed that further pre-clinical and clinical work is necessary to validate the use of interferons to treat <\/span>Klebsiella. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cOn an age reaching a situation where infections are becoming increasingly difficult to treat, this research opens a hitherto unknown avenue to fight back multidrug resistant infections and emphasizes the importance of fundamental research to tackle the issue of antibiotic resistance,\u201d Bengoechea said. <\/span><\/p>\n

The paper was published in <\/span>PLOSPathogens<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers from Queen\u2019s University Belfast and the University of Vienna have recently discovered that the body\u2019s natural defenses could be used to treat Klebsiella pneumoniae, a bacteria resistant to antibiotics. The discovery could not have come at a better time, as this week — November 13-19 — is World Antibiotic Awareness Week. Antibiotic resistance is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":22684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,230,229,243],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medical-breakthrough","category-news","category-lead-stories","category-health"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Antibiotics.jpg",830,533,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Antibiotics-224x144.jpg",224,144,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Antibiotics-300x193.jpg",300,193,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Antibiotics.jpg",830,533,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Antibiotics.jpg",830,533,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Antibiotics.jpg",830,533,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Antibiotics.jpg",830,533,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Natalie Colarossi","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/author\/natalie-colarossi\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Researchers from Queen\u2019s University Belfast and the University of Vienna have recently discovered that the body\u2019s natural defenses could be used to treat Klebsiella pneumoniae, a bacteria resistant to antibiotics. The discovery could not have come at a better time, as this week — November 13-19 — is World Antibiotic Awareness Week. Antibiotic resistance is…","featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Antibiotics.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}