The team of scientists in Sweden may have found a substitute for antibiotics to fight infection. In mice, called models, they train the body's natural immune system called innate immune, to weaken and destroy bacteria that cause kidney infection, which often occurs in children.
The innate immune system is the body's first line of defense, and work in two different ways to fight infection. The first way, researchers call "a good anti-bacterial defense," targeting and killing pathogens. Alternatively, the system that causes inflammation-redness, swelling and fever that accompanies illness or injury. It is also an important part of the immune reaction, but also can significantly damage the tissue, and in some cases add to the progress of disease or infection.
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| A microbiologist reads a panel to check on a bacterium's resistance to an antibiotic in the Infectious Disease Laboratory at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. (Picture from: http://adf.ly/1a3KUV) |
"So the question is, can treat infections by stopping the bad parts of the immune defense and keep the antibacterial defenses. This is what we do on the model," says Catharina Svanborg, a professor of clinical immunology at Lund University in Sweden.
She and her fellow researchers found, the second part of the process was controlled by two different molecules, so they simply turn off the inflammatory molecules. By turning off the molecule, researchers can take advantage of the body's immune defense that leads to healing.
"It's surprising because this technology has not been used in this way to treat the infection. So, this is an unexpected finding but it is a logical step that was taken after the show that they are different," she continued.
Svanborg and her colleagues published their findings in the journal Science Translational Medicine. She said the researchers plan to conduct additional trials, to see whether the innate immune system can kill other pathogens, such as the cause of pneumonia.
"This is the same for all the different categories and conceptually, what we do is not to kill the bacteria directly, we harness the immune system such that tissue damage is pressed and the symptoms are suppressed," she explained.
Given the urgency and the more serious antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, Svanborg sure, someday some diseases treated only by using the body's immune system. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | VOA NEWS]
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