New details about zinc's immune system role point to better treatment of major bacterial diseases
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E-mail Xinhua, March 9, 2019
SYDNEY, March 9 (Xinhua) -- New details about the role of the trace mineral zinc in humans' immune systems could help the development of non-antibiotic treatment strategies for major bacterial diseases, such as urinary tract infections (UTIs), according to a latest Australian research.
The team of University of Queensland researchers examined how the immune system uses zinc to fight the uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) bacteria behind the major cause of urinary tract infections, the university said in a statement on Friday.
Urinary tract infections are one of the most common bacterial infections worldwide with about 150 million cases each year and can lead to serious medical conditions such as kidney infection and sepsis, it said.
Zinc is already known to be toxic to bacteria and the researchers "confirmed by direct visualization that cells in our immune system known as macrophages deploy zinc to clear bacterial infections," the university's Dr Ronan Kapetanovic said.
They also discovered that the UPEC has a two-pronged strategy to survive the body's immune response.
"We found that, compared to non-pathogenic bacteria, UPEC can evade the zinc toxicity response of macrophages, but these bacteria also show enhanced resistance to the toxic effects of the zinc," Kapetanovic said.
"These findings give us clues to how our immune system battles infections, and also potential avenues to develop treatments, such as blocking UPEC's escape from zinc to make it more sensitive to this metal."
"Treatment strategies that don't use antibiotics have the advantage of bacteria not developing resistance; if we can reprogram our immune cells to make them stronger, or change the way they respond to bacteria, we would be better equipped to fight superbugs," Kapetanovic said.
The study, which was published in scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, also identified the full set of UPEC genes that provide protection against zinc toxicity, the university's Dr Minh Duy Phan said.
"This knowledge provides another potential avenue for developing antimicrobial agents for the treatment of UTIs," Phan said. Enditem
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