Urinary tract infection ( UTIs ) are typically process with antibiotic , butaccording toNew Scientist , newfangled data about how the bacteria work could chair to a different method of dealing with the infection . The field , comport by researcher from the University of Basel and the ETH Zurich , was recently published inNature Communications .
UTIs are caused when bacteria from the large intestine , likeE. coli , travel up the urinary tract . Whilecranberry juice can avail comfort symptomsand even prevent contagion , take antibiotics has been the main cure . But we may be approaching these infections the wrong means .
The researchers regain that inE. coliinfections , the bacteria have a protein called FimH , locate at the ends of hair - like appendage . FimH has a " arrest - adhesion chemical mechanism " that hooks onto the sugar mote on the control surface of cells in the urinary nerve tract . When the septic person urinates , the hooks blockade the bacterium from exiting the consistence .
" The protein FimH is composed of two parts , of which the 2d non - sugar binding part mold how tightly the first part binds to the sugar molecule , " Timm Maier of the University of Baselsaidin a press program line . “ When the force of the piddle flow commit aside the two protein domain , the sugar binding site snap keep out . However , when the tractile military force sink , the truss air pocket reopens . Now the bacteria can come away and swim upriver to the urethra . ”
harmonise to the researchers , discover the protein and how it work could lead to a raw approach for intervention . If the arrest - James Bond mechanism can be disengaged so that the bacteria can be pee out , then it becomes less of import to stamp out the bacterium with antibiotic . few antibiotics means that the bacteria are less probable to become resistant . New Scientistreports that the research worker behind the subject field are already testing newfangled FimH - blocking drugs in beast .
[ h / tNew Scientist ]
