New treatment could render staph completely harmless

There has been a lot in the news lately about MRSA (drug resistant staph). The following discussing a new procedure used to reduce the staph defense system (not antibiotics).


www.lightsources.org...

The multi-institutional team exploited a chemical pathway that allows the Staph bacterium to defend itself against an immune response. The researchers showed that a compound (BPH-652) originally designed to lower cholesterol blocks a key enzyme in that pathway, weakening the organism’s defenses and allowing the body’s immune cells to prevail against the infection.

The positives of this are outstanding. Cross contamination in hospitals is the most often thought of source of staph infections (and, with MRSA, it actually is).

However, in some people who suffer from hydradenitis supperativa (commonly thought of as boils, but reaching sizes upwards of a softball, and full of drainage that smells like roadkill), this could be a God send.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


Thanks for the info furrytexan. I remember posting a thread about the 'new gay plague' and the interesting discussion that followed.

Anything that can help us better combat pathogens is a great step for all of us.

Let's hope this treatment works and can be utilized effectively. Great stuff

Glad to hear this, my dad almost lost a leg because of staff. All the doctors around here tried everything they could think of, but nothing worked. He was out in Wyoming on vacation when he got very sick and had to go to the hospital. It just happened the doctor that treated him knew of a new drug that would knock it out. He no longer has the problem.

I lost my best front line employee to staph. He isn't dead...he had to move to Florida to recieve specialized treatment for a staph infection that was about the size of a football. He had a medical condition that caused him to be severely obese (near 700 lbs). My heart hurt for him, as he is a very, very good man and a hard worker. I hope all goes well for him.

I lived in Wyoming for a year. Most beautiful country I have ever laid eyes on.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


I've never been there myself. My parents would go to Chicago every August to my uncle's and get in his motor home and they would travel for about a month. My uncle was my dad's brother and my aunt was my mom's sister so it worked out real good. They would kind of make a loop. They would go to Washington and Oregon and always wind up in Vegas, even before my cousin moved there . She always said that one way to guarantee that her dad would visit her would be to live in Las Vegas. He died this last September. They have came back with tons of pictures. There are some beautiful places out west.

For a listing of the types of diseases than can negatively impact us due to staph:

Staph Manifestations

STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS:

MANIFESTATIONS:
Cutaneous:
Furuncle: Boil, infected hair follicle.
Carbuncle: Boil resulting from cluster of furuncles.
Bacteremia: Targets kidneys, lungs, hearts, bone. Possible coagulopathy.
The first thing you will see is an isolated abscess in an organ -- a clue that systemic S. Aureus infection is occurring.
You may also see petechial hemorrhages in fingernails, toes, and digits.
Endocarditis can result.
Septic embolus can break off of the vegetations and go to a distal peripheral artery (such as finger) to cause an infarct.
Osteomyelitis can also result. Used to occur in children. Septic arthritis occurs in adults, associated with heroin IV-needle use.
Scalded Skin Syndrome: Bullous lesions leading to desquamation in infants.
It is a result of the toxin Exfoliatin. No bugs are found in the lesion.
It will heal without scarring, if treated carefully and not spread.
Toxic Shock Syndrome: Result of TSS-Toxin.
High-grade fever, headache, myalgia, hypotension, rash, diarrhea.
Food Poisoning: Abdominal cramps, diarrhea, vomiting, 2-12 hours after eating. Staph Aureus is the most common cause of food poisoning in the U.S.
Associated with mayonnaise kept at room temperature, such as at a picnic.
Results from Enterotoxins A-E
VIRULENCE:
COAGULASE: Staph Aureus is Coagulase (+) and thus virulent. Coagulase Negative Staph (CNS) are far less virulent.
Catalase, Fibrinolysins, Hyaluronidase.
Methicillin-Resistant Staph Aureus (MRSA): Must be treated with Vancomycin.
Coagulase-Negative Staph (CNS): Less virulent. S. Saprophyticus causes UTI's in young females.

Great news. However it is a battle being (possibly) won. Not the war.
Drug resistance IS and WILL be major issue, and resistance evolves faster then new antibiotics are introduced. Reasons for this are in part lack of financial interest in major Pharma companies. It is more cost - effective to research + produce + sell drug for diabetics, which the patient will buy as long as he lives, then a drug that will be needed for week or two.
Since no one can force these companies to invest more in new antibiotics, access to existing and working ones should be limited to "as needed" and not "as patient insist that it is needed". This will give us several more years.

Another treatment for MRSA is French Green Clay. There is actually a type that is very beneficial and is showing great promise. The problem, there is another type, so similar in look, that can actually cause it to grow more quickly. So, it is something that really needs to be studied and care must be taken in labeling I believe. I doubt this will happen though, think..mud, vs expensive pharmaceuticals I think we know what will win out
www.independent.co.uk...

reply to post by tacocheesey

Great. However it could be used for skin/open infections (which are probably most cases), but inner infection will not be affected. Clay is not absorbed in guts,not injectable so no way it can reach site of infection.

reply to post by ZeroKnowledge


I believe, however, that the approach employed here is to disable the defense.

A bacterium is an artistically elegant piece of biology. It is excrutiatingly simplistic in design. In the staph bacteria the primary defense is the membrane, the gold colored outter part.

What they are affecting here is the ability of Staph to effectively develop this golden membrane.

Our pharmaceutical effort has amounted to stabbing in the dark, trying to find something that appeared effective. It is not an engineering effort (as we have been unable to engineer chemicals, not knowing what to impact or how).

Now we are figuring out HOW it can be done. With any luck, this type of technology could certainly be seen as effective in other areas.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


That's what i meant as battle (probably) won. This is not the only bacteria which is drug resistant. And penicilline in the beginning was doing fine on a lot of bacteries, by messing with their membrane.
Resistance is and will be issue because these are very adaptable (more then us anyways) life forms,with magnitude of types and numbers.
The war will go on.

A 700lb man due to a staff infection........lol......this site kills me.


Mod Note: One Line Post – Please Review This Link.


[edit on 17-2-2008 by Jbird]

reply to post by Yosemite Sam


I'm not sure I see the funny side of your post

Rather poor form if you ask me

reply to post by Yosemite Sam


He was 700lbs due to other health issues (thyriod problems, couldn't exercise much due to poor pulmonary health....very common). The staff infections are a by product of his weight, not a cause. I am sorry you didn't understand.

But, in the interest of doing what is right, i feel the need to defend him. You, unfortunately, do not know him. He is a good man, and I am sorry that you find humor in a good man's suffering. I truly take pity on you.

Silica Smart Bombs Delivery Knock-Out To Bacteria

Mark Schoenfisch and his lab of analytical chemists at UNC have created nano-scale scaffolds made of silica and loaded with nitric oxide (NO) – an important molecule in mammals that plays a role in regulating blood pressure, neurotransmission and fighting bacterial infections, among other vital functions.

“There was evidence that nitric oxide kills bacteria, but the difficult part involved storing it in a manner such that it could be delivered to bacterial cells,” said Evan Hetrick, a doctoral student in Schoenfisch’s lab and lead author on a paper in the February issue of the American Chemical Society’s journal ACS Nano.

While the body constantly produces NO, and can ramp up its production to fight infection, sometimes it can’t produce enough to mount a sufficient defense. Previous research using small molecules to deliver NO hit roadblocks – controlling the release of the compound was difficult and the molecules were potentially toxic to healthy cells in the body.

“With silica scaffolds, nitric oxide stores easily and we could very carefully control the release,” said Schoenfisch, an associate professor of chemistry in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Schoenfisch, Hetrick and their colleagues tested their silica scaffolds head-to-head with small molecules against the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is commonly found in burn and other wound infections.

NO delivered by both methods completely killed the bacteria. But the silica nanoparticles delivered the NO right to the bacteria’s doorstep. In contrast, the small molecules released NO indiscriminately, and the concentration of NO is lost as it makes its way toward bacterial cells.

With the rise of staph concerns, as well as other bacterial infections (pneumonia, menigitis), news such as this is very promising.

The key will be to break down viral DNA without breaking down human DNA. Bacteria are nice to get a tool to fight with, but viruses are still the holy grail.

I have recurrent staph infections and it really hurts me to see all this money going to bombs and missiles and fancy jets when our medical system is hurting so much

Nice find BFFT. S&F.

There was also a study that was released at the end of the summer that shows that the components of the hemp plant will kill many kinds of bacteria strains including MRSA.

I am going to put a link to a WebMD article which discusses the findings -- I will not excerpt for fear of T&C -- and suggest that anyone who is interested in this subject read it.

LINK


EDIT TO: Change my mind as this is a very salient piece of info from tbhe link that speaks to an earlier posters concerns of resistance ultimately trumping.

The scientists note the cannabinoids kill bacteria in a different way than traditional antibiotics, meaning they might be able to bypass bacterial resistance.

[edit on 29-12-2008 by TheWayISeeIt]

reply to post by TheWayISeeIt


There is a new thread here on ATS dealing with the topic of the French Green Clay introduced above:

www.abovetopsecret.com...