Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) scientists have discovered a previously unknown method used by bacteria to evade immune responses.
The study, published in Nature Microbiology, points to potential new ways of countering bacterial infections, which are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics.
First author Dr Pankaj Deo said researchers in Dr Thomas Naderer’s laboratory took a different approach to understanding the process by which bacteria release toxins that disarm the ‘power-house’ mitochondria in immune cells.
The study showed that immune cells sense that their mitochondria are no longer functional during infections, which triggers apoptosis. “Ironically, it is the activation of host cell death factors that deliver the final blow to mitochondria which induces apoptosis, not the bacterial toxins themselves,” Dr Pankaj said.
