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Antibiotic-resistant superbugs, including methicillin resistantStaph. aureus ( MRSA ), have become household words. Antibiotic resistance threatens health and lives. Schools have been closed,athletic facilities have been scrubbed, and assisted living and daycare centers have been examined for transmission of these bacteria.Since 2005, MRSA have killed over 18,000 people a year in theUnited States alone. To make matters worse, in 2002 a new MRSA with resistance to eventhe last-line drug vancomycin (VRSA) appeared. Since the first casein Michigan, there have been at least 11 other well-documentedcases in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and more in Michigan.Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control, Harvard Universityand elsewhere have been working to determine the origin of theseVRSA, to understand why they have turned up, and to understand therisk of spread. Most VRSA occurred in foot and limb infections ofdiabetics who are often in and out of health care facilities. Eachof these infections is believed to have had multiple bacteria, anMRSA plus a vancomycin resistant bacterium called Enterococcus (orVRE). VRE has caused vancomycin resistant hospital-acquiredinfections since the 1980s. But there is hope on the horizon. Scientists have now determinedthe genome sequence for all available VRSA strains. TheHarvard-wide Antibiotic Resistance Program is using thisinformation to develop new ways to prevent and treat infection byMRSA, VRSA and VRE. The team identified several new compounds thatstop MRSA by hitting new targets, and is currently subjecting theseto further tests. This group works closely with partners at theBroad Institute and Harvard's Microbial Sciences Initiative. To sequence the genomes, researchers from the National Institutesof Health (NIH)-funded Harvard-wide Antibiotic Resistance Program,headquartered at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston, assembledan elite international team. Headed by Harvard professor MichaelGilmore, Ph.D., and his associate Veronica Kos, Ph.D., both basedat Mass. Eye and Ear, the team included bioinformatics and genomicsexperts from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the Institutefor Genome Sciences of the University of Maryland, the Universityof Rochester, and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Center in the UK. Theyidentified features in the genomes that appear to have made iteasier for certain MRSA to acquire resistances in mixed infection.Their findings are reported in the journal mBio®, the American Society of Microbiology's first broad-scope,online-only, open access journal. "The genome sequence gave us unprecedented insight into what makesthese highly resistant bacteria tick. Several things wereremarkable," says Gilmore. "Vancomycin resistance repeatedly wentinto just one tribe of MRSA, so the question became 'what makesthat group special -- why did they start getting vancomycinresistance?"' "What we found was that this group of MRSA has properties thatappear to make it more social, so they can live with other bacterialike Enterococcus. This would allow those MRSA to more easily pickup new resistances," adds Kos. "The good news is that some of theseproperties weaken the strain's ability to colonize, and may belimiting their spread." Additional References Citations. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as China Permanent Mold Casting , Plastic Electronic Enclosures for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Plastic Electronic Enclosures.
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