WEDNESDAY, Feb. 4, 2004 (HealthDayNews) -- Injecting a protective coating into the intestines to pacify bacteria there -- instead of relying on antibiotics -- helped protect mice from otherwise lethal post-operative infections, says a University of Chicago study in the February issue of Gastroenterology.
The high-molecular-weight polyethylene glycol coating protected mice that had had major surgery from infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It's a virulent pathogen that is lethal in 100 percent of untreated mice.
This kind of infection is one the most dangerous for people after they have major surgery. This study may offer a way to deal with such hospital-related infections without having to use antibiotics.
Pseudomonas is found in the intestines of about 3 percent of healthy people. In the bowel, this kind of bacteria can be harmless. But it can also become a potentially deadly threat.
The researchers say that the bacteria can detect an ill host's vulnerability by sensing chemicals that indicate stress. The bacteria respond by mounting an aggressive attack, boring through the bowel wall and into the blood stream.
The germ can evade and even disable the host's immune system, resists antibiotics and secretes toxins similar to those used by diphtheria or anthrax. People with widespread infection can die within days.
This study found that, in mice, the protective coating forms a surrogate bioshield in the intestine that stops this whole process before it begins. It prevents the chemical signals of stress from reaching the bacteria and triggering the deadly response.
The coating also acts as a buffer between the bowel wall and the bacteria.
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