Scientists Sequence Genome of Bacteria

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Researchers in Japan announced on Thursday that they have sequenced the genome of two different strains of Staphylococcus aureus--a bacterium that has increasingly made headlines over the years due to its ability to evade antibiotic treatments. The finding will hopefully lead to new ways to fight antibiotic-resistant strains of the bacteria, a problem that is on the rise around the world.

Dr. Keiichi Hiramatsu and colleagues at Juntendo University in Tokyo sequenced one strain of S. aureus that has grown resistant to the antibiotic methicillin and another strain that has become resistant to the antibiotic vancomycin. Their findings are published in the April 23rd issue of The Lancet.

The antibiotic methicillin and related drugs are the standard treatment for Staphylococcus aureus infections, and vancomycin is the second line of defense for treating the common infections. If these antibiotics fail to kill the bacteria, the fear is that such infections would be essentially untreatable.

``The genome sequence project is a milestone (and) it speeds up our work. It revealed a lot of genes that were not previously known. Many of these are potential virulence factors that are potential targets for drug and vaccine development,'' Dr. Dlawer A.A. Ala'Aldeen of the University Hospital of Nottingham in England said in an interview with Reuters Health. Ala'Aldeen and Hajo Grundmann are authors of an editorial accompanying the study.

The research by Hiramatsu and colleagues ``identifies clear differences between the two strains (of S. aureus),'' Ala'Aldeen said. The project ``also sheds light on evolutionary aspects of the organism and its interaction with the ecological environment.''

Methicillin-resistant strains of S. aureus (MRSA) have rapidly increased in recent decades. In the past, MRSA infections were usually found only in patients with serious medical problems, recent or current hospitalization, or who were residents in long-term care facilities.

But MRSA is now recognized as an emerging infection that can be acquired outside the hospital, although the extent of community-acquired MRSA infection in the US is unknown, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA.

Staphylococcus aureus is commonly found on the skin and in the nose of healthy people. Occasionally, the bacteria can get into the body and cause an infection. This infection can be minor (such as pimples, boils, and other skin conditions) or serious and sometimes fatal (such as blood infections, toxic shock syndrome or pneumonia).

SOURCE: The Lancet 2001;21:1218-1225.

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