Researchers from the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) at the Free University of Brussels have recently published results that show promise in the quest for a new remedy for chronic urinary tract infections.
The researchers have shown that administration of the sugar Heptyl-�-D-mannoside can prevent E. coli bacteria from binding to the wall of the urinary tract - which is the first step in the development of the infection.
Urinary tract and bladder infections are among the most prevalent bacterial infections and can be quite painful.
In addition to this, more and more bacteria are becoming resistant to the antibiotics.
For these reasons, scientists have been busy seeking another solution.
Because E. coli bacteria use very particular hair-like projections (called pili) to cling to tissues - the first stage of a potential inflammation - a drug that can prevent this attachment can also avert bladder and urinary tract inflammations.
This attachment takes place by means of a reaction between the protein 'Adhesine FimH' on the tips of the pili and special receptors on the wall of the urinary tract.
The researchers hypothesized that they could prevent this binding by administering a substance that would have a greater affinity with Adhesive FimH than with the receptors on the urinary tract.
Via crystallography and affinity determinations, they demonstrated that the bacteria bind very strongly to the structure of the Heptyl-�-D-mannoside sugar.
This binding is strong enough to prevent the bacteria from attaching themselves to the urinary tract wall.
Therefore, administration of Heptyl-�-D-mannoside could prevent bladder infections.
VIB, the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology, is a research institute where 800 scientists conduct gene technological research in a number of life-science domains, such as human health care and plant systems biology.