Originally published January 22 2006
International research team identifies receptor proteins in Mediterranean spotted fever
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Understanding how the bacterium interacts with host cells is the first step, say scientists, to stopping the Rickettsial bacteria (usually spread by fleas, ticks and lice to humans).
New research by a team of scientists in France and the United States has identified both the bacterial and host receptor proteins that enable Rickettsia conorii, the Mediterranean spotted fever pathogen to enter cells.
Understanding how this bacterium interacts with the cells of its host could lead to new therapeutic strategies for diseases caused by related pathogens, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever and typhus.
Pascale Cossart, an HHMI international research scholar at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, together with her postdoctoral fellow Juan Martinez and collaborators in Paris and at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, has identified the first receptor for a Rickettsial bacterium.
Their findings will be reported in the December 16, 2005, issue of the journal Cell.
Rickettsial bacteria are transmitted by fleas, ticks, and lice to humans and other mammals, where they can cause dangerous and sometimes fatal infections.
The symptoms are generally mild and respond to antibiotics that shorten the course of the disease.
But serious complications occur as much as 10 percent of the time, usually in patients who are elderly or who have some other underlying disease.
Cossart and her team demonstrated that the Ku70 protein on the surface of host cells is critical for R. conorii to enter the cell, making it the first Rickettsial receptor ever identified.
"This receptor is a subunit of a protein complex present mainly in the nucleus, but also in the cell cytoplasm and at the cell membrane," said Cossart.
Ku70 is probably not the only receptor involved in bacterial entry, she noted.
Her team has already shown that Ku70 has to be present in certain well-organized regions of the cell membrane called rafts, and that the protein modifier called ubiquitin modifies Ku70 as soon as the bacteria interact with it.
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