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【bio-news】成像技术可观察骨内慢性感染
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081222143515.htm
ScienceDaily (Jan. 15, 2009) — A new report demonstrates how a sensitive imaging technique gives scientists the upper hand in seeking out bacteria in chronic infections.
Listeria monocytogenes is a type of pathogenic bacteria that can cause severe illness and death. Listeria outbreaks recently claimed twenty lives in Canada. Additionally, Listeria infection is the third most common cause of bacterial meningitis in newborns, and can cause abortion and stillbirth. When the infection is caught in time, treatment can be difficult and take weeks to clear with intravenous administration of antibiotics.
Therefore, in order to understand how this pathogen can be so elusive and difficult to treat, a research team from Stanford University School of Medicine studied mice infected with Listeria. Their report describes how they use a technique called in vivo bioluminescence to light up bacteria and allow them to see extremely tiny amounts of bacterial cells in living animals. Using this method, they found that small persistent patches of Listeria took up residence inside bone marrow in the mice. This is significant because it is thought that the bone marrow can act as a reservoir to the brain and spinal cord, potentially causing life-threatening infections, such as in bacterial meningitis in newborns.
Another interesting aspect of this study is due to the use of specially designed Listeria stains in treating cancer. Clinical trials are currently underway in which non-disease-causing strains of Listeria are administered to cancer patients to generate immune responses against tumors. The researchers thus also looked at these attenuated strains, and found that they too could be harbored in bone marrow. It is still unclear, however, if such bacterial persistence will increase or decrease therapeutic effects.
The report was written by Jonathan Hardy, Pauline Chu, and Christopher H. Contag of the Stanford University School of Medicine in California. The report is published in the January/February issue of a new research journal, Disease Models & Mechanisms (DMM), published by The Company of Biologists, a non-profit based in Cambridge, UK.
Scientists used a technique called in vivo bioluminescence to light up bacteria and allow them to see extremely tiny amounts of bacterial cells in living animals. (Credit: Jonathan Hardy, Pauline Chu, and Christopher H. Contag)
新研究让慢性骨内感染的细菌发光
ScienceDaily (Jan. 15, 2009) — A new report demonstrates how a sensitive imaging technique gives scientists the upper hand in seeking out bacteria in chronic infections.
有报道称一种敏感的成像技术可以让科学家更进一步找出细菌慢性感染。
Listeria monocytogenes is a type of pathogenic bacteria that can cause severe illness and death. Listeria outbreaks recently claimed twenty lives in Canada. Additionally, Listeria infection is the third most common cause of bacterial meningitis in newborns, and can cause abortion and stillbirth. When the infection is caught in time, treatment can be difficult and take weeks to clear with intravenous administration of antibiotics.
单核细胞增多性李斯特菌是一种可致严重疾病甚至死亡的致病菌。最近，加拿大李斯特菌爆发流行致20人死亡。另外，李斯特菌是新生儿脑膜炎第三常见的病原菌，而且可以致流产和死胎。一旦受感染，治疗可能非常困难，需要静脉抗生素治疗几周才可清除。
Therefore, in order to understand how this pathogen can be so elusive and difficult to treat, a research team from Stanford University School of Medicine studied mice infected with Listeria. Their report describes how they use a technique called in vivo bioluminescence to light up bacteria and allow them to see extremely tiny amounts of bacterial cells in living animals. Using this method, they found that small persistent patches of Listeria took up residence inside bone marrow in the mice. This is significant because it is thought that the bone marrow can act as a reservoir to the brain and spinal cord, potentially causing life-threatening infections, such as in bacterial meningitis in newborns.
因此，来自斯坦福大学医学系的研究组对李斯特菌感染小鼠进行研究，以了解该病原菌是怎样逃避及其治疗的困难。他们报告了他们使用一项名为体内生物发光的技术，可以使细菌发光，并且可以在存活的动物体内看到非常小量的细菌。通过这项技术，他们观察到小鼠骨髓内李斯特菌感染灶的持续性小光斑。因为骨髓可以是脑及脊髓的储藏库，所以存在新生儿脑膜炎等有生命危险的潜在感染。
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-02-20 05:12
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