How Flesh-Eating Bacteria Attack the Body’s Immune System

The immune-blocking effects of SpyCEP produced by strep were strong enough to allow other bacterial species to survive at the site of infection, which may contribute to mixed infections that require complex antibiotic regimens. The researchers also showed that a pathogen of fish, Streptococcus iniae, produces its own version of SpyCEP that may contribute to recent reports of severe skin infections caused by this bacterium in fish handlers.

Nizet explained that the researchers' findings could lead to novel treatments for strep-related diseases. “In addition to attempting to kill the bacteria directly with standard antibiotics, new treatment strategies could be targeted to inhibit the Strep protease and thereby disarm the pathogen, making it susceptible to clearance by our normal immune defenses,” he said.

This study was financed by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Swiss National Science Foundation. Co-authors contributing to the study were Anjuli Timmer, PhD, Jeffrey Locke, PhD, and John Buchanan, PhD, of the UCSD Department of Pediatrics; Morgan Pence, UCSD graduate student in biomedical sciences; Claire Turner and Shiranee Sriskandan, PhD, of Imperial College, London; and Inbal Mishalian and Emmanuel Hanski, PhD, of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Source: University of California, San Diego Health Sciences