Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria
Posted on by Dr. Francis Collins
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, commonly known as MRSA, pose a serious public health threat, causing more than 80,000 skin, lung, and blood infections and killing about 11,000 people annually in the United States . This microbe wreaks its devastation by secreting a toxin, alpha-hemolysin, that punches holes in the membrane of cells, essentially causing them to leak to death. Now, NIH-funded researchers from the University of California, San Diego, have created tiny sponges capable of trapping and binding MRSA’s toxin . When these toxin-laden sponges are injected into mice, they serve as a vaccine—that is, they stimulate the animal’s immune system in a way that protects them from the toxin’s deadly impact.