Bacteria could have ill effects on people. Scientists are trying to find out how bacteria could possibly exploit the body's immune system. Bacterial enzyme can stop the body from fighting diseases, as a study shows.
The human body have various means to fight bacteria. Bacteria though is a living organism, and could just as adapt to them. Enzymes on bacteria could fight the means used by the body to fight them. Thomas Kehl-Fie, Microbiology professor at the University of Illinois and lead author of the study has said that the body has a variety of ways to fight bacteria and the immune system is generally effective in fighting them.
However, bacteria can also fight back. Bacteria can overcome nutritional immunity, one of the body's defenses against bacterial infection. Nutritional immunity is when bacteria is starved of manganese, one of the elements needed by the bacterial enzyme superoxide dismutase, or SOD. A particular bacteria though could resist this defense.
The bacteria s.aureus has two SOD enzymes that allow it to resist nutritional immunity. When this happens, the bacteria then can go on its way and causes disease. The SOD enzyme carried by s.aureus has varieties. One is dependent on manganese. The other one though uses iron, according to the Illinois News Bureau.
If the manganese dependent SOD is affected, the bacteria could switch to the iron-using SOD in order to continue with its activity. This allows then the bacteria to go past the body's line of immune system. This has been observed by Kevin Waldron, the study's co-author and from Newcastle University.
The team has said that the enzymes might likely be in other bacteria as well, as Science Daily reports. Making treatment that could target both enzymes could be the key to stopping bacterial infection in many people. This is especially important as bacteria have developed a resistance to antibiotics.
The search to find new ways to combat bacteria continues. Bacterial enzyme can stop the body from fighting diseases. A study has also been made to see why Alzheimer's patients wander.
