Researchers in Canada have found a potential weakness in one of the most common, serious, and even deadly bacteria that has been difficult to treat with antibiotics.

Dr. Dao Nguyen (MD. MSc), is a scientist from the Translational Research in Respiratory Diseases Programme at the Research Institute- McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and an associate professor of Medicine at McGill University.

 Drug tolerant and drug resistant bacteria have become a serious problem when treating with anti-biotics.

Many fast growing bacteria that once could be treated easily have become resistant, fighting off the drugs or evolving so the drugs no longer have a “target”. Others, such as the one investigated, are more slow growing can go dormant in the body and develop tolerance, basically shutting down so there is no active target for the drug, and in this case, creating a thicker cell wall as well making it harder for drugs to penetrate. As current drugs become less effective, development of new drugs is a long slow process, and other solutions must be found.

Dr Dao Nguyen (MD, MSc) McGill Professor, and researcher at the RI-MUHC

Scientists at the RI-MUHC, have been studying Pseudomona aeruginosa, a bacterium that is tolerant to most treatments, and is a leading cause of lung infections resulting in death for people with cystic fibrosis. The bacterium also causes a number of other infections as well

Researchers wanted to find out how the bacterium can defend itself from antibiotics. What they found is this slow growing bacterium is under stress and goes dormant, it thickens the cell wall, preventing antibiotics from penetrating and waits until the threat eg antibiotics passes to potentially become active again.

The researchers discovered the stress enzyme used by the bacterium to create its tolerance to treatments.

Now that they have identified this enzyme, it can become a new “target” for treatment, ie, knock out the enzyme defence signalling, and the cell wall remains permeable and more easily penetrated by antibiotics.

Dr Nguyen says this discovery may apply to other bacteria which can demonstrate tolerance, and further studies will continue. She adds that now that scientists are aware of this discovery, drug companies and others can work on molecules (drugs) to nullify it.

It is yet another important advance in the struggle to overcome a serious and too often deadly bacteria that has previously been relatively unaffected by modern medicines attempts to defeat it.