SUPERBUG IMPACT ON THE GUT
June 25 2020
Monash University and ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging (Imaging CoE) researchers have discovered that the devastating bacterial superbug Clostridioides difficile hijacks the human wound healing system in order to cause serious and persistent disease, opening up the development of new therapies to treat the disease.
Clostridioides difficile is the most common hospital-acquired disease and causes persistent and life-threatening gut infections – particularly in elderly and immunocompromised patients.
The infection is very difficult to treat, and often repeatedly reoccurs in patients even after they have been given powerful and debilitating antibiotics for many months. C.difficile is also highly resistant to antibiotics, which greatly complicates treatment.
A team based in the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) found that C. difficile massively activates a human enzyme called plasminogen in order to destroy gut tissue and to help spread the infection throughout the patient. Ordinarily, plasminogen, and its active form plasmin, is deployed in a highly controlled fashion to break down scar tissue and help wounds heal.
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“The results were a huge surprise, and revealed that the severe damage caused to the gut by C.difficile was actually caused by a human enzyme rather than a bacterial toxin,” said study co-leader and infectious disease expert Professor Dena Lyras.
Given their findings, the researchers decided to investigate whether potent antibodies developed by the team and that inhibited the plasminogen/plasmin system could be used to treat the disease.
“We found that an antibody that prevented plasminogen from being activated dramatically stalled the progress of infection and tissue damage,” said first author Dr Milena Awad.
The researchers now aim to commercialise their antibodies in order to treat a range of bacterial and inflammatory diseases.
An advantage of targeting a human protein in an infectious disease is that resistance to the therapy is far less likely to occur.
“The antibody could have broad utility, since the plasminogen/plasmin system is dysregulated in a range of different serious inflammatory and infectious diseases – for example, the plasminogen system most likely is a driver of the devastating lung damage seen in COVID-19,” said study co-leader and ARC Imaging CoE Director Professor James Whisstock.
The study, published in the leading US journal Gastroenterology today, was led by senior authors Professor Dena Lyras, Dr Ruby Law and Professor James Whisstock, in conjunction with joint-lead authors Dr Milena Awad, Dr Melanie Hutton, and Dr Adam Quek.
Read the abstract of the paper in Gastroenterology titled: Human Plasminogen Exacerbates Clostridioides difficile Enteric Disease and Alters the Spore Surface.
ENDS
About the ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging
The $39 million ARC-funded Imaging CoE develops and uses innovative imaging technologies to visualise the molecular interactions that underpin the immune system. Featuring an internationally renowned team of lead scientists across five major Australian Universities and academic and commercial partners globally, the Centre uses a truly multi-scale and programmatic approach to imaging to deliver maximum impact. The Imaging CoE is headquartered at Monash University with four collaborating organisations – La Trobe University, the University of Melbourne, University of New South Wales and the University of Queensland.
About the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute
Committed to making the discoveries that will relieve the future burden of disease, the newly established Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute at Monash University brings together more than 120 internationally-renowned research teams. Our researchers are supported by world-class technology and infrastructure, and partner with industry, clinicians and researchers internationally to enhance lives through discovery.
This article was first published by the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute