Urinary tract infections could be history with new prevention approach

• 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-á-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-á-D-mannoside sugar.
• This binding is strong enough to prevent the bacteria from attaching themselves to the urinary tract wall.
• Therefore, administration of Heptyl-á-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.