Staph germ blasts body’s fighter cells
WASHINGTON - The aggressive antibiotic-resistant staph infection responsible for thousands of recent illnesses undermines the body’s defenses by causing germ-fighting cells to explode, researchers reported Sunday. Experts say the findings may help lead to better treatments.
An estimated 90,000 people in the U.S. fall ill each year from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. It is not clear how many die from it; one estimate put it at more than 18,000, which would be slightly higher than U.S. AIDs deaths.
MRSA long has been linked with health-care facilities, where it attacks people with reduced immunity.
But many recent cases involve an aggressive strain, CA-MRSA, or community-associated MRSA. It can cause severe infections, even death in healthy people.
The strain secretes a compound formed by amino acids that causes immune cells called neutrophils to burst, eliminating a main defense against infection, researchers say.
The findings, from a team of U.S. and German researchers, appeared in Sunday’s online edition of the journal Nature Medicine.