Published: 09 July 2015

Breaking up MRSA - new discovery could reduce device related infections in hospitals

A discovery about how bacteria cling to the surfaces of medical devices, could have potential to significantly reduce infections from devices like catheters and other lines inserted into the body.

According to lead author on the research, Professor James O'Gara, from the Department of Microbiology at NUIG,

'We've discovered a new way that bacteria can attach themselves to the walls of a medical device and create a protective coating that stops our immune system and antibiotics from attacking them. MRSA can secrete an emzyme, called coagulase, that converts a component of our blood, fibrinogen, into fibrin. Fibrin is the protein that helps our blood to clot. 

This then acts as a scaffold onto which the bacteria attach themselves to the walls of the device, usually a plastic tube or catheter, and they also create a protective barrier with the fibrin that keep out antibiotics and our own immune system'.

Co-author on the paper, Dr Eoghan O'Neill from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, takes up the story,

'We've tested some drugs that are known to break up blood clots and have found that they can break up the biofilms protecting these dangerous bacteria.

This opens the possibility of us getting in early and disrupting the bacteria in the initial stages of an infection. When we break up the biofilm, we expose the bacteria to the patient's own immune system response as well as allow us to try antibiotics against it'.

A video recording of Professor O'Gara explaining his discovery is available at the link below. More information is also available from the HRB press release.

The results are published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, and available at their website.