3D illustration of Cholera bacteria
Vibriosis, a severe infection increasingly resistant to antibiotics, is on the rise in southern Europe as well as the southern coast of the U.S. where the bacteria thrives in warm, coastal waters.
Scientists at King’s College London have now mapped the structure of Vibrio bacteria in unprecedented detail in an effort to provide new targets for life-saving treatment.
Many types of bacteria have what’s called a flagellum, a microscopic “propeller” that is essential for swimming and is what allows bacteria to infiltrate a person’s bloodstream. In Vibrio species, this flagellum is surrounded by a sheath. Targeting this sheath at a molecular level offers a promising new treatment approach not tried before.
According to the study in Nature Communications, researchers used one of the world’s most powerful cryo-electron microscopes to visualize the sheathed flagellum at atomic resolution. This revealed details of how the flagellum rotates within the sheath and suggests a mechanism for the formation of this sheath.
Rather than killing the bacteria outright—as antibiotics do—impairing the flagellum or its sheath could stop them from being able to cause infection, with the additional benefit of lessening the risk of antibiotic resistance.
“We believe that interfering with the sheath or the mechanisms enabling high-speed rotation could prevent Vibrio from colonizing hosts, or could expose the flagellum to a successful immune attack,” said Kailin Qin, PhD student at King’s College London and co-author of the study. “These findings represent a critical step toward developing new treatments against Cholera and Vibriosis, including the most dangerous antibiotic-resistant strains.”
Data from King’s College London