Researchers have studied a bacterium that actively attacks clinic patients and causes pneumonia in them. Found a curious feature.
Pathogenic bacteria walking through hospitals strengthen their cell walls to resist antibiotics, writes Nature Communications. According to the publication, this was established by scientists from the Imperial College in London.
They reportedly investigated the bacterium Klebsiella Pneumoniae, one of the most common infectious agents in hospitals. Its proliferation in the body leads to pneumonia. Antibiotics of the carbapenem class are usually used against these microbes; they are distinguished by an exceptionally wide spectrum of action.
However, scientists noticed that over time, these drugs stopped working on Klebsiella Pneumoniae, as the bacteria learned to defend against them. They studied the structure of the cells of the microorganism and compared them with the cells of those microbes that have not acquired resistance to antibiotics.
It turned out that the "experienced" pneumonia pathogens do not have proteins that create pores in the cell walls. Sometimes these proteins are modified. In any case, the walls are "sealed": the pores are still there, but they are so narrow that the antibiotic does not pass inside.
Researchers have found that this advantage is beneficial to the "Klebsiella" in hospitals: in the external environment, these bacteria would not withstand competition with "unprotected" brethren, because because of their "armor" they are weaker and grow slowly.
Adel Romanenkova