RxPG News Feed for RxPG News

Medical Research Health Special Topics World
  Home
 
   Health
 Aging
 Asian Health
 Events
 Fitness
 Food & Nutrition
 Happiness
 Men's Health
 Mental Health
 Occupational Health
 Parenting
 Public Health
 Sleep Hygiene
 Women's Health
 
   Healthcare
 Africa
 Australia
 Canada Healthcare
 China Healthcare
 India Healthcare
 New Zealand
 South Africa
 UK
 USA
 World Healthcare
 
   Latest Research
 Aging
 Alternative Medicine
 Anaethesia
 Biochemistry
 Biotechnology
 Cancer
 Cardiology
 Clinical Trials
 Cytology
 Dental
 Dermatology
 Embryology
 Endocrinology
 ENT
 Environment
 Epidemiology
 Gastroenterology
 Genetics
 Gynaecology
 Haematology
 Immunology
 Infectious Diseases
 Medicine
  Emergency Medicine
  Internal Medicine
  Respiratory Medicine
   Asthma
   COPD
   Cystic Fibrosis
  Sexual Medicine
 Metabolism
 Microbiology
 Musculoskeletal
 Nephrology
 Neurosciences
 Obstetrics
 Ophthalmology
 Orthopedics
 Paediatrics
 Pathology
 Pharmacology
 Physiology
 Physiotherapy
 Psychiatry
 Radiology
 Rheumatology
 Sports Medicine
 Surgery
 Toxicology
 Urology
 
   Medical News
 Awards & Prizes
 Epidemics
 Launch
 Opinion
 Professionals
 
   Special Topics
 Ethics
 Euthanasia
 Evolution
 Feature
 Odd Medical News
 Climate

Last Updated: Oct 11, 2012 - 10:22:56 PM
Cystic Fibrosis Channel

subscribe to Cystic Fibrosis newsletter
Latest Research : Medicine : Respiratory Medicine : Cystic Fibrosis

   EMAIL   |   PRINT
Hcp1 plays a critical role in cystic fibrosis infection

Jun 10, 2006 - 1:43:00 PM , Reviewed by: Priya Saxena
"This finding provides a possible drug target to fight the infection in cystic fibrosis patients"

 
[RxPG] Harvard Medical School researchers have discovered one way that a hardy disease-causing bacteria could be surviving in the lungs of chronically infected cystic fibrosis (CF) patients.

"This work is important because pathogenic bacteria such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) use protein secretion systems to cause disease in their hosts," said Joseph Mougous, lead author of the study published in the June 9 issue of Science. "In the case of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the host may be a cancer patient with a weakened immune system, a burn patient, or a person with cystic fibrosis (CF)."

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA), a pathogen that infects more than 80 percent of cystic fibrosis patients, is a leading cause of these patients' death. PA is difficult to treat because it is resistant to many drugs.

"Since we know so little about what this bacterium is up to while it's engaged in these chronic infections, the discovery of this protein secretion system might lead to finding a new target for treatments," said Mougous, a research fellow in the Harvard Medical School (HMS) Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics.

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) provided one of the clues that contributed to the HMS discovery. Working through a number of pathogenic proteins, ANL protein crystallographer Marianne Cuff saw a bagel-shaped pore that might be involved in transferring toxins into cells. She deposited the structure of the protein, called Hcp1, into the Protein Data Bank, a resource used by biologists worldwide to find information about the proteins they are studying.

While exploring the Protein Data Bank, Mougous, who was studying PA in the laboratory of department chair John Mekalanos, recognized that the amino acid sequence of Hcp1 in PA closely resembled that of Hcp1 in Vibrio cholerae. The Mekalanos lab had previously discovered that the Hcp1 protein of V. cholerae is released from the bacterium via a novel secretion pathway. Because Hcp1 proteins from both pathogens belong to the same protein family, Mougous wondered whether the Pseudomonas Hcp1 might also be secreted via this pathway.

The Harvard and Argonne researchers quickly formed a collaboration and confirmed the hypothesis. They then turned their attention to Hcp1 in cystic fibrosis patients to gain more insight in the role of Hcp1 during infection.

Working with cystic fibrosis patients at Children's Hospital Boston, the HMS researchers sought and found Hcp1 in the sputum of patients with P. aeruginosa. They also found Hcp1 antibodies in the patients' blood – further evidence that Hcp1 plays a critical role in the infection. The human immune system creates antibodies to pathogens it is exposed to.

"CF patients are particularly susceptible to PA," Mougous said. "The bacterium thrives in the excess mucus that accumulates in their lungs. Once a PA infection in a CF patient's lung has been established, these hardy bacteria are difficult or impossible to clear, which over many years eventually results in the death of the patient. Our paper provides evidence that the protein secretion system we discovered represents at least one way this bacterium could be promoting its own survival in the lungs of CF patients."

"This finding provides a possible drug target to fight the infection in cystic fibrosis patients," added Andzrej Joachimiak, director of Argonne's Structural Biology Center and of the Midwest Center for Structural Genomics based at Argonne.



Publication: June 9 issue of Science
On the web: www.hms.harvard.edu 

Advertise in this space for $10 per month. Contact us today.


Related Cystic Fibrosis News
Cystic fibrosis-related diabetes is due to functional abnormalities in beta cells
No evidence for inhaled corticosteroids efficacy in cystic fibrosis
Hcp1 plays a critical role in cystic fibrosis infection
Cystic fibrosis research could benefit from multi-functional sensing tool
Loss of CFTR-mediated fluid secretion is the culprit in cystic fibrosis
New treatment for cystic fibrosis patients
Genetic variations influence cystic fibrosis' severity
How to design a better drug to treat cystic fibrosis
FDA Gives Clearance to the First Cystic Fibrosis DNA test

Subscribe to Cystic Fibrosis Newsletter

Enter your email address:


 Additional information about the news article
The research was supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Biological and Environmental Research.

Harvard Medical School has more than 7,000 full-time faculty working in eight academic departments based at the School's Boston quadrangle or in one of 47 academic departments at 18 Harvard teaching hospitals and research institutes. Those Harvard hospitals and research institutions include Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, the CBR Institute for Biomedical Research, Children's Hospital Boston, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Forsyth Institute, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Joslin Diabetes Center, Judge Baker Children's Center, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, McLean Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital, Schepens Eye Research Institute, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and VA Boston Healthcare System.

The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory conducts basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is managed by the University of Chicago for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.
 Feedback
For any corrections of factual information, to contact the editors or to send any medical news or health news press releases, use feedback form

Top of Page

 
Contact us

RxPG Online

Nerve

 

    Full Text RSS

© All rights reserved by RxPG Medical Solutions Private Limited (India)