Key step in process of Shigella infection identified

Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Division of Infectious Diseases are investigating the mechanism by which several important pathogenic species of bacteria deliver proteins into the cells of the organisms they are infecting. In a paper receiving advance online publication in Nature Microbiology, the team describes determining a key step in how the diarrhoeal pathogen Shigella injects proteins into target host cells. Their findings may apply to additional bacterial species, including Salmonella and those responsible for typhoid fever, bubonic plague and many hospital-acquired pneumonias. “Many bacterial pathogens establish infection by delivering effector proteins – which are responsible for many of the effects of infection – into cells. Therefore, delivery of effector proteins is a significant mediator of the impact of infection on human tissue,” says Dr. Marcia Goldberg, director of Research in the MGH Division of Infectious Diseases, senior and corresponding author of the report. “The most common mechanism used by...