B'desh scientist discovers cause of cholera
Friday, 15 October 2010
A Bangladeshi scientist has discovered how a harmless bacteria causes severe form of diarrhea known as cholera, reports UNB.
Dr Shah M Faruque, Head of Molecular Genetics at ICDDR,B (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh) and his research team have discovered the findings.
This important breakthrough will have far reaching implications globally in predicting when new types of cholera-causing bacteria, called Vibrio cholerae will next appear and start infecting people to fall ill, according to the research team.
The finding was published in Nature, the internationally acclaimed science journal. It published outstanding discoveries of Dr Faruque and his Dhaka-based research team in collaboration with Dr John Mekalanos of Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA.The new research explains how bacteria become infected with their own viruses and how these viruses interact to allow the bacteria to produce substances that interact with the intestinal cells to make them produce the large quantities water and electrolytes known as diarrhea, Dr Alejandro Cravioto, executive director of ICDDR,B, said.
Although some of these mechanisms are already known, the work of Dr Faruque and his associates advances the understanding of how these different viruses interact to make the bacteria a more effective pathogen.
The new phase identified, called the 'TLC phase' adds a new piece to the puzzle on how the bacteria get information they need from the environment to use it to live in difficult environments like the human intestine.
"We discovered and characterized the 'TLC phase' which changes, albeit slightly, the chromosomal sequences of the cholera bacterium," Dr Faruque said.
This subtle change enables an incoming toxigenic CTX phase genome to be incorporated and in doing so a harmless strain of V Cholerae is transformed into a dangerous killer, he said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that cholera kills more than 100,000 people every year, and infects more than a million.
Recent epidemics in sub-Saharan African countries like Zimbabwe and Mozambique and more recently in the flooded areas of Pakistan highlight the continuing threat of cholera and need for studies like ICDDR,B for a better understanding of the disease and its capacity to transmit in the environment, he said.
"We hope that our knowledge will help save lives and have far reaching implication in public health research," Dr Faruque said.
Dr Shah M Faruque, Head of Molecular Genetics at ICDDR,B (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh) and his research team have discovered the findings.
This important breakthrough will have far reaching implications globally in predicting when new types of cholera-causing bacteria, called Vibrio cholerae will next appear and start infecting people to fall ill, according to the research team.
The finding was published in Nature, the internationally acclaimed science journal. It published outstanding discoveries of Dr Faruque and his Dhaka-based research team in collaboration with Dr John Mekalanos of Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA.The new research explains how bacteria become infected with their own viruses and how these viruses interact to allow the bacteria to produce substances that interact with the intestinal cells to make them produce the large quantities water and electrolytes known as diarrhea, Dr Alejandro Cravioto, executive director of ICDDR,B, said.
Although some of these mechanisms are already known, the work of Dr Faruque and his associates advances the understanding of how these different viruses interact to make the bacteria a more effective pathogen.
The new phase identified, called the 'TLC phase' adds a new piece to the puzzle on how the bacteria get information they need from the environment to use it to live in difficult environments like the human intestine.
"We discovered and characterized the 'TLC phase' which changes, albeit slightly, the chromosomal sequences of the cholera bacterium," Dr Faruque said.
This subtle change enables an incoming toxigenic CTX phase genome to be incorporated and in doing so a harmless strain of V Cholerae is transformed into a dangerous killer, he said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that cholera kills more than 100,000 people every year, and infects more than a million.
Recent epidemics in sub-Saharan African countries like Zimbabwe and Mozambique and more recently in the flooded areas of Pakistan highlight the continuing threat of cholera and need for studies like ICDDR,B for a better understanding of the disease and its capacity to transmit in the environment, he said.
"We hope that our knowledge will help save lives and have far reaching implication in public health research," Dr Faruque said.