NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - German researchers for the first time have completely sequenced the genome of the Gram-positive organism Propionibacterium acnes, a commensal implicated in the formation of acne vulgaris and other diseases.
Ultimately, this knowledge will aid in the development of new treatments to specifically knock out this bacterium without the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, lead author Dr. Holger Bruggemann told Reuters Health.
Dr. Bruggemann, currently at Institut Pasteur in Paris, and colleagues at Georg-August-University Gottingen, identified 2333 putative genes. Their findings help explain the ubiquitous nature of this organism and its involvement in other diseases, such as endocarditis and sarcoidosis, they write in their report in the July 30th issue of Science.
Of note, the organism encodes the key components of multiple metabolic pathways, which thus permits it to grow under aerobic, microaerobic or anaerobic conditions.
The authors also identified sequences for enzymes that permit its attachment to host cells and degradation of host tissue, such as sialidases, neuraminidases, lipases and endoglycoceramidases. Moreover, many of the sequences resemble those of immunogenic proteins produced by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. leprae.
Severe acne is currently treated with antibiotics, which poses two problems, Dr. Bruggemann said. “You kill other beneficial bacteria, and you increase antibiotic resistance against common antibiotics,” he explained. Having the complete sequence will help scientists “figure out which factors have to be inactivated so that P. acne growth is diminished or the interaction with the host is blocked.”
Source: Science 2004;305:671-673. [ Google search on this article ]
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