Potential new method to treat antibiotic resistant bacteria

Antibiotic resistant bacteria infections are on the rise. Numbers of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) cases are skyrocketing and ways to treat them are limited. By using the proteins expressed in the bacteria itself, scientists have found a new way to eliminate such bacterial infections.

When bacteria infect human cells, the bacteria hijacks the human DNA in the cell to allow for successful propagation. This is done by controlling the human RNA and protein levels in the cell and turning on or off the genes to promote the bacteria’s survival.

Most current methods to treat bacterial infections either focus on blocking proteins on the human cell that control entry of the bacteria into the cell or by not allowing bacteria from taking control of the human DNA/RNA machinery. A new approach turns the attention to the bacterial proteins themselves and have shown that by blocking the bacterial genes, infected cells can be effectively eliminated from the body.

This new technique uses a small molecule inhibitor (RNPA-1000) to block the action of a bacterial RNAse enzyme that normally causes the human RNA to be degraded. By blocking this RNAse, the human RNA remains and continues to accumulate in the cell. As the cell becomes completely filled with so much RNA, cell death pathways are triggered and the cell dies.

Although the RNAse inhibitor (RNPA-1000) does work, it won’t be used in the clinic because of some toxicity to normal uninfected cells. RNPA-1000 is, however, being used as a model to design new drugs that work in similar ways.

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Plos Pathogens 7: 1-13, 2011