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New drug could help neutralize toxins from E. coli

By Pritzker | Ruohonen

Scientists from Canada and Japan have designed a drug that they envision could be used in the future with antibiotics to treat the most severe E. coli  infections.

Their study, summarized in the Oct. 28 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, says the drug protected mice from potentially deadly and exceptionally potent injections of Shiga toxins produced by E. coli O157:H7

The scientific article, written by George Whitesides of Harvard University, said Shiga toxins -- which can cause potentially lethal hemolytic uremic syndrome in E. coli O157:H7 patients -- belong to the same family as cholera.

The new drug is designed to inhibit or mop up the toxic bacteria. As Scientific American put it in an article summarizing the study, the drug promises to disarm bugs that cause food poisoning.

At least 12 scientists were involved in the research, which took place at universities in Kumamoto, Japan and in the Canadian province of Alberta at Edmonton and Calgary. 

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there may be 70,000 infections with E. coli O157:H7 each year.

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on October 29, 2008 (boomark / email).