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Antimicrobial therapy targeting specific cells in the immune system could prevent sepsis, antimicrobial therapy kills or inhibits the growth of microorganisms like as bacteria, fungi, or protozoans. A team of researchers led by Professor Marco Oggioni from the University of Leicester’s Department of Genetics and Genome Biology has found that shortly after initial infection, the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) replicates within a certain subset of immune cells in human bodies – a subset of splenic macrophages – before causing invasive and often fatal disease.
Intracellular replication protects bacterium from being killed by other immune cells and from the activity of the most commonly used antibiotics, the research also shows that antimicrobial therapy, specifically targeted to abort this phase of intracellular replication can prevent the occurrence of pneumococcal septicaemia, which is common in many patients suffering from pneumonia.
Pneumonia is one of the leading causes of mortality by infectious disease and is more common in certain at-risk groups of people, such as the very young or the elderly. The research shows that deadly infections can be treated with antibiotics.
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