Zurich/Basel – Swiss researchers have found the first therapy that protects newborns from meningitis caused by E. coli K1. It kills the bacterium, which is harmless to adults but dangerous for babies, in the mother and thus prevents transmission at birth.
(CONNECT) A Swiss research team has developed a method to prevent the transmission of the Escherichia coli (E. coli) virus type K1 from the mother to the newborn, according to a report by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH). This virus is a natural part of the intestinal flora in one in three healthy people and does not cause any problems. For every 500. In newborns, however, it causes life-threatening meningitis, which may leave severe and permanent damage in surviving children. So far, it can only be treated with antibiotics in a race against time.
The team, led by Emma Slack, ETH Professor of Mucosal Immunology, and Médéric Diard, Professor of Infection Biology at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel, pursued the idea of eliminating E. coli K1 in pregnant women so that transmission does not occur in the first place. However, in order to combat the tenacious bacterium, it must first be freed from its protective outer skin. This was achieved using bacteriophages, i.e. viruses that specialize in attacking and destroying bacteria. The team found suitable bacteriophages in wastewater samples from a sewage treatment plant in the Lucerne agglomeration.
In experiments with pregnant mice that had been infected with E. coli K1, the researchers administered firstly phages that force the bacteria to shed their protective coating, secondly a phage inoculation that kills these bacteria and thirdly a harmless probiotic competitor bacterium that can occupy their ecological niche in the intestine. In a control experiment with untreated dams, E. coli K1 was transmitted to 83 percent of the young animals at birth. With triple therapy, the figure was only 23 percent.
According to Prof. Slack, all three components can be easily packaged in a capsule. The scientists now want to use this to develop a therapy for humans. They also want to use the same approach to combat other bacteria, including multi-resistant pathogens, against which many antibiotics are no longer effective. ce/mm
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