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The HIV antiretroviral Selzentry
(maraviroc) combats the potentially lethal pathogen Staphylococcus aureus, the
bacterium that causes staph infections, according to research from the New York
University School of Medicine, redOrbit reports. Staph infections, which are
the cause of hundreds of thousands of hospital admissions each year in the
United States, are increasingly antibiotic-resistant. Publishing their findings
in the journal Nature, the researchers discovered that a toxin called LukED
that the bacterium excretes latches onto the same CCR5 coreceptor on the CD4
cell that HIV typically uses in order to gain entry. LukED then pierces holes
through the CD4’s membrane, killing the cell.
Because Selzentry blocks the ability
of the toxin to latch onto the CCR5’s coreceptor, it has the potential to
thwart staph’s assault on the immune system. When the researchers treated CD4
cells with the antiretroviral in a laboratory setting, the drug totally blocked
the toxic effects of LukED, which comes from a family known as leukotoxins.
Researchers then examined the effects of CCR5 coreceptor inhibition in mice.
Nearly all mice exposed to staph containing LukED died, while all those mice
the scientists had genetically engineered to lack the CCR5 coreceptor survived
the infection.
“The goal in blocking the toxin with
maraviroc or similar agents is to give the upper hand to the immune system to
better control the [staph] infection,” lead researcher Victor J. Torres, PhD,
assistant professor of microbiology at NYU School of Medicine, said in a
release.
The scientists hope the research
will advance to human clinical trials.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
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