To make the infections from Stafilococcus so tenacious is the attachment between the bacterium and a protein of human skin.
How does Stafilococcus do, the bacterium mainly responsible for human skin infections, to attach itself so ferociously to the epidermis? A group of US scientists has unmasked the secret of the Staphylococcus aureusa microorganism that lives on the skin and that, in rare cases, can cause antibiotic resistant infections.
Behind his tenacity there would be a very powerful link between staphylococcus and a leather protein. An attachment that does not find comparisons in the natural world. The discovery was published on Science Advances.
Practically inseparable
Scientists from the University of Auburn in Alabama, together with colleagues from Belgium and United Kingdom, used atomic force microscopes (high resolution imaging tools) and supercomputer to observe in detail how staphylococcus attacked the proteins of human skin.
They discovered that a protein, the SDRD, hooks like a hook to a skin protein, Desmoglein-1.
The link between the two proteins seemed immediately so powerful that it does not find comparisons in nature: it can resist so intense stresses, to rival the strength of certain chemical bonds.
“It is the non-covalent protein-protein bond that ever reported,” specifies Rafael Bernardi, a physics professor at the University of Auburn. The non -covalent bonds are weak interactions, which do not imply the sharing of electrons, which generally form between different molecules.
The role of football
Beyond chemical subtleties, this explains why the staphylococcus does not leve from the skin even when we wash ourselves, scratch or sweat. Moreover, the researchers, football, an essential element for the health of the bones, have discovered the unwelcome effect of strengthening the “socket” of Stafilococcus even more:
It is an important detail, because football levels are often deregulated, on the skin of people suffering from eczema, a condition that seems to be aggravated by the bacterium. When scientists have reduced the levels of football in the laboratory, the link between Stafilococcus and Desmoglein weakened.
Against antibiotics resistance
The discovery opens the doors to new solutions to combat antibiotic resistance. The idea is that, instead of trying to eliminate the bacterium directly, a strategy that can encourage the evolution of resistant forms, instead you could try to mitigate its bond with human skin: if the staphylococcus loses adhesive capacity, it is easier for our immune defenses to get rid of it.
