14 DAY TRIAL // According to several reports, the Staphylococcus aureus bacterium, otherwise known as staph, is currently the bacterium that causes the most skin and heart infections reported on a yearly basis. What's more, the microorganism is said to be responsible for the death of over 100,000 Americans each year.
A new paper in the journal Cell Host & Microbe argues that this bacterium is such an effective killer due to the fact that it produces and releases into its victim's body a potent toxin that takes on immune cells and destroys them.
“What we've found is that Staph unleashes a multi-purpose toxin capable of killing different types of immune cells by selectively binding to surface receptors,” researcher Victor J. Torres with the NYU Langone Medical Center says, as cited by Science News.
“Staph has evolved the clever ability to target the immune system at different stages,” he adds.
The toxin in question is named LukED. In the case of T-cells, macrophages and dendritic cells, i.e. white blood cells in charge of fighting back infections, it binds to a receptor dubbed CCR5, causes pores to form and thus destroys them.
In the case of neutrophils, other types of white blood cells that lack CCR5 receptors, it binds to surface receptors known as CXCR1 and CXCR2, and kills them by once again triggering pores to form.
The specialists say that, in order to tackle staph infections, the scientific community must figure out a way to keep said toxin from doing its job of wiping out the body's immune cells.
“The lesson is to target the toxin itself and prevent it from attaching to any receptors. We have to think globally,” Dr. Victor J. Torres argues.