A research team has discovered a key molecular mechanism that contributes to antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus epidermidis, a type of staphylococcus that lives on the skin, Academia Sinica reported.
Staphylococcus bacteria are notorious for quickly developing resistance to antibiotics and are the main culprit in hospital-acquired infections that can kill patients admitted for other illnesses.
Among them, staphylococcus epidermidis usually lives on the skin and causes no harm to healthy people, the team from Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biological Chemistry said.
It can, however, cause severe infections in immune-suppressed patients and those with catheters or other surgical implants, said Andrew Wang (王惠均), vice president of Academia Sinica and the research team’s leader.
The key to understanding the mechanism described by the team is that the bacteria protects itself from the host’s immune system and enhances its resistance to antibiotics by producing a biofilm.
The groundbreaking research revealed the structure of the protein component — Teicoplanin-associated Locus Regulator (TcaR) — that effectively prevents the formation of the biofilm under normal conditions.
“It is very exciting to note that our study has clearly delineated the antibiotic binding site of TcaR and the mechanism of how antibiotics induce biofilm formation,” Wang said.
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