Newly Designed Molecule Blocks Chlamydia Bacteria
Date: 22.7.2011
Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have discovered a way to block the damaging actions of Chlamydia, the bacteria responsible for the largest number of sexually transmitted infections in the United States.
The team, which included Duke University microbiologists and chemists, designed a molecule that takes away the bacteria's self-defense mechanisms.
The therapies that could come from this discovery mark a new type of antimicrobial approach. Instead of directly killing the bacteria, they will disarm a central weapon of Chlamydia, and let the body take care of the rest.
A virulence factor that Chlamydia produces, called CPAF, emerged as a promising target to shut down because it plays an important role in protecting the bacteria within hiding places (vacuoles) in human cells.
" The Duke chemists, led by Dewey McCafferty, Ph.D., a professor in the Duke Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, designed a molecule that could block the CPAF activity inside of human cells.
Source:
http://www.dukehealth.org/health_library/news/newly-designed-molecule-blocks-chlamydia-bacteria
