• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Monday, October 13, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

Scientists discover curious clues in the war between cf bacteria

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
August 7, 2020
in Health
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
IMAGE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

UNC School of Medicine researchers describe in detail the different weaponry bacteria use to establish infection in the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis, depending on their age

IMAGE

Credit: Cotter lab, UNC School of Medicine

Several different kinds of bacteria can cause lung infections in people with cystic fibrosis (CF). Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can cause pneumonia, typically infects infants or young children and persists for life, while Burkholderia cepacia complex species only infect teenagers and adults. Although Burkholderia infections are rare, when they do take hold, they are deadly. Now, UNC School of Medicine scientists led by Peggy Cotter, PhD, professor in the UNC Department of Microbiology and Immunology, have discovered a reason for this pathogen’s apparent age discrimination.

This research, published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, shows that both Pseudomonas and Burkholderia use toxic weaponry, called Type VI Secretion Systems (T6SS), to compete with and establish dominance over each other. It’s possible that scientists could target, or mimic, this weaponry to defeat the bacteria before they cause irreparable harm to lungs of patients.

Scientists have wondered for a long time why Burkholderia does not infect infants and young children. First author and former Cotter Lab graduate student Andrew Perault, MPH, PhD, designed and conducted experiments to show that Pseudomonas bacteria isolated from infants and young children use their harpoon-like T6SS to fire toxins at, and kill, competitor bacteria, including Burkholderia.

“This may be one of the reasons Burkholderia does not take root in young patients,” Cotter said. “Andy showed that although Burkholderia also produce T6SSs, they cannot effectively compete with Pseudomonas isolates taken from young CF patients.”

However, as those Pseudomonas bacteria adapt to living in the lungs of CF patients, they lose their ability to produce T6SSs and to fight with Burkholderia. The Burkholderia, using their own T6SSs, are then able to kill the Pseudomonas and establish infection.

“We believe the findings of our study, at least in part, may explain why Burkholderia infections are limited to older CF patients,” Perault said. “It appears that as at least some strains of Pseudomonas evolve to persist in the CF lung, they also evolve to lose their T6SSs, and hence their competitive edge over Burkholderia, which are then free to colonize the respiratory tract.”

The scientists think the Burkholderia T6SS is an important factor promoting the ability of these pathogens to infect CF patients. Therefore, researchers could potentially develop therapeutics to target these secretion systems to prevent infections.

Moreover, assessing the T6SS potential of resident Pseudomonas populations within the CF respiratory tract may predict susceptibility of patients to potentially fatal Burkholderia infections.

###

Along with senior author Peggy Cotter, PhD and first author Andrew Perault, MPH, PhD, other authors are Matthew Wolfgang, PhD, associate professor in the UNC Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Courtney Chandler, PhD, a postdoctoral associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and David Rasko, PhD, and Robert Ernst, PhD, both professors at the University of Maryland.

This research was funded through National Institutes of Health Awards NIHR01GM121110 to the Cotter lab and U19AI110820 to the Rasko lab, a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Award (COTTER18I0), a UNC Graduate School Dissertation Completion Fellowship to Perault, and a University of Maryland Graduate School stipend to Chandler.

Media Contact
Mark Derewicz
[email protected]

Original Source

http://news.unchealthcare.org/news/scientists-discover-curious-clues-in-the-war-between-cf-bacteria

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2020.06.019

Tags: BacteriologyBiologyMicrobiologyPulmonary/Respiratory Medicine
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Pediatric Drug Trials in China: Completed vs. Discontinued

October 13, 2025

Evaluating Pharmacist Prescribing for Skin Condition Management

October 13, 2025

Advancements in Interfaces for High-Frequency Brain Signal Reading

October 13, 2025

Food’s Impact on Species Extinction Varies Significantly

October 13, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Sperm MicroRNAs: Crucial Mediators of Paternal Exercise Capacity Transmission

    1228 shares
    Share 490 Tweet 307
  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    103 shares
    Share 41 Tweet 26
  • New Study Indicates Children’s Risk of Long COVID Could Double Following a Second Infection – The Lancet Infectious Diseases

    100 shares
    Share 40 Tweet 25
  • Revolutionizing Optimization: Deep Learning for Complex Systems

    90 shares
    Share 36 Tweet 23

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Pediatric Drug Trials in China: Completed vs. Discontinued

Wafer-Scale Fabrication of 2D Microwave Transmitters

Evaluating Pharmacist Prescribing for Skin Condition Management

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 64 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.