Health & Fitness - Salmonella trickier than scientists think

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Salmonella trickier than scientists think

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (UPI) -- University of Rochester, N.Y., Medical Center researchers say they've identified a protein that lets salmonella bacteria maintain a low profile in the body.

Study leader Jun Sun says that a molecular trick may in part explain how the bacteria get the crucial time to quietly gain a foothold in an organism before the immune system is roused to fight the invader.

"Inflammation immediately after a bacterial infection occurs helps the body fight off bugs like salmonella quickly," Sun says in a statement. "But it may be that salmonella is especially equipped with tools to allow it to evade the immune system early on, growing quietly and then really making the host quite ill. Salmonella is trickier than we imagined."

Sun's team finds that a virulence protein known as AvrA dampens the inflammatory response, which helps the bacteria avoid the wrath of the immune system and gives the infection crucial time to grow and develop before it needs to expend energy to fight off immune cells.

"AvrA allows salmonella to make peace with you, buying the bacteria a little time to survive in the body," Sun says. "That's bad news for the body, because then the bacteria spreads. AvrA allows the bacteria to do harm in the body without the body realizing it."

The findings are published online in the journal PloS One.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

This news arrived on: 06/16/2008

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