Researchers seek to make cavity-causing bacteria sel...(oy itself with its own acid as soon as i...),Health

Date:1/2/2008

oy itself with its own acid as soon as it eats sugar, said Robert G. Quivey, Ph.D., professor of Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Rochester Medical Center and principal investigator for the grant. After that, this line of work could help lead to new anti-bacterial combination therapies for many infections that have become resistant to antibiotics.

Study Details

In 2002, Charles O. Rock, Ph.D., a faculty member within the Department of Infectious Diseases at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, published his research describing the existence of the FabM enzyme. Rock, a consultant on Quiveys grant application, also established the role that the FabM gene plays in the construction of compounds called fatty acids in the membranes of strep bacteria, a barrier they present to surrounding world. Applying the FabM line of work to oral disease for the first time, Quivey and colleagues about two years later published research that FabM enzymes were behind dramatic changes seen, in response to increasing acidity, in the fatty acids that compose the S. mutans membrane.

S. mutans produces lactic acid as a waste product of fermentation, the process by which some ancient lifeforms convert sugar into energy for life without using oxygen. After a great many generations of exposure to its own acid waste, the membranes for this species have become acid durable. Quiveys team has shown that FabM contributes to this durability by making carbon chains, the main functional feature of S. mutans membrane fatty acids, grow longer. In fact, as many as 60 percent of the fatty acids in a bacterial outer membrane undergo this change as acidity increases, Quivey said.

Researchers have already shown that such structural changes protect membranes, presumably by making it more difficult for acids to donate hydrogen ions to them, but they do not yet know why. Forcing hydrogen ions on other compounds gives acid its bad reputation. Remaining
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Contact: Greg Williams Greg_Williams@urmc.rochester.edu University of Rochester Medical Center Source:Eurekalert

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