How zinc starves lethal bacteria to stop infection

Australian researchers have found that zinc can ‘starve’ one of the world’s most deadly microbes by preventing its uptake of an essential metal. The finding, by infectious disease researchers at the University of Adelaide and The University of Queensland (UQ), opens the way for further work to design antibacterial agents in the fight against Streptococcus pneumoniae. These bacteria are responsible for more than a million deaths a year, killing children, the elderly and other vulnerable people by causing pneumonia, meningitis and other serious infectious diseases. Project leader Dr Christopher McDevitt, from the University of Adelaide’s Research Centre for Infectious Diseases, said the study found that zinc “jammed shut” a protein transporter in the bacteria so it could not take up manganese. Manganese is an essential metal that Streptococcus pneumoniae needs to invade and kill humans. “It’s long been known that zinc plays an important role in the body’s ability to protect against bacterial infection, but...