The nose knows how to fight staph
Bacterium found in nasal secretions may counter antibiotic-resistant infection
MRSA BUSTER A compound secreted by the nose-dwelling bacterium Staphylococcus lugdunensis may fight antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria such as MRSA (pink).
NIAID, NIH/Wikimedia Commons
MANCHESTER, England — The human nose harbors not only a deadly enemy — Staphylococcus aureus — but also its natural foe. Scientists have now isolated a compound from that foe that might combat MRSA, the methicillin-resistant strain of S. aureus.
“We didn’t expect to find this. We were just trying to understand the ecology of the nose to understand how S. aureus causes problems,” bacteriologist Andreas Peschel of the University of Tübingen in Germany said at a news briefing July 26 during the EuroScience Open Forum. Investigating the intense interspecies competition in the nose — where microbes fight for space and access to scant sugars and amino acids — might offer a fertile alternative to searching for new drug candidates in soil microbes.
Antibiotic researcher Kim Lewis of Northeastern University in Boston agrees
