MRSA Notes

This is great news in the fight against MRSA! In a University of Chicago study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists believe they have created a vaccine that offers significant protection from most of the strains of MRSA. Here are some specifics about the research:

Olaf Schneewind, M.D., Ph.D., led the University of Chicago research group. Using available genome sequencing and analysis of antigenic proteins from diverse S. aureus strains, the researchers tested 19 surface proteins to see if they triggered an immune response in mice. The group then identified four individual proteins — IsdA, IsdB, SdrD and SdrE — that provided the strongest immune response, combined them into a vaccine and tested the combination vaccine in mice.

“When we challenged the immunized mice by exposing them to a human strain of S. aureus, the combination vaccine provided complete protection, whereas the control group developed bacterial abscesses,” says Dr. Schneewind. For comparative purposes, the researchers also tested all four proteins as individual vaccines. These vaccines provided either no protection or modest protection, says Dr. Schneewind.

The researchers then tested the combination vaccine in mice again, this time challenging groups of 10 vaccinated mice for seven days using five different S. aureus strains that infect humans. The vaccine offered significant protection against all strains examined.

Although it would be a wonderful thing to no longer have to worry about MRSA and antibiotic resistant bacteria at all, these bacteria are amazingly adaptable, and we will have to stay one step ahead of them always, I am sure. This is just the beginning of coming up with a vaccine against Staphylococcal infections, but it is a great start, and hopefully will provide some big keys towards dealing with it in the future.

CA MRSA, HA MRSA, Illinois, Infection Prevention, MRSA Drugs

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