Originally published January 26 2006
Penn researchers make important discovery about whooping cough infections
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Research conducted at the Penn State Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics has determined that the germ responsible for whooping cough demonstrates an ability to fight off antibodies during the first week of infection.
A key toxin associated with whooping cough helps the germs resist the human immune system and infect vaccinated populations.
Discovery of this resistance mechanism could lead to potential new treatments for the disease, according to researchers at Penn State.
Whooping cough, or pertussis, is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the germ Bordetella pertussis.
Though the widespread use of vaccines has helped reduce disease drastically, recent surveys reveal that the disease is increasingly being diagnosed in a large number of vaccinated adults, posing a serious health risk to unvaccinated children and infants.
"One of the great mysteries of pertussis is how it persists within populations despite high vaccination rates," says Eric Harvill, assistant professor of microbiology and infectious disease in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
Tests on infected mice show that serum antibodies are usually able to clear the germ from the lungs by recruiting large numbers of neutrophils, a type of white blood cells that kill germ cells, by surrounding and absorbing them.
Antibodies produced by the vaccines are effective only seven days after they are administered, says Harvill, who is part of Penn State's Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics.
"The bacterium appears to have a mechanism to resist the effects of antibodies during the first week of infection," he adds.
They looked specifically at the genes encoding Pertussis toxin, PTx, and hypothesized that this toxin somehow interfered with antibody-mediated bacterial clearance.
To test their theory that those pertussis germs without the toxin would be more susceptible to antibodies, Harvill and his colleagues inoculated one set of mice with genetically engineered B. pertussis that lacked the toxin, and another set with the naturally occurring strain.
"The most direct treatment could involve inactivating the toxin, or simply having vaccines that produce more antibodies specific to the toxin," notes the Penn State researcher.
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