NEW TREATMENT FOR FOOD POISONING

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NEW TREATMENT FOR FOOD POISONING
30 March 2007 - University of Bristol

A team of researchers working at the University of Bristol has found a potential new treatment for listeriosis, a deadly form of food poisoning. Their work is reported in Nature Medicine.

The group, led by Professor Jose Vazquez-Boland, has shown that one particular antibiotic, fosfomycin, can treat Listeria in the body, despite it being ineffective in laboratory conditions.

Because it was not effective in the laboratory, this drug has never been considered for the treatment of listeriosis, in spite of it reaching the infection sites more effectively than other antibiotics.

Professor Vazquez-Boland said: “Our results illustrate that antibiotic resistance in the laboratory does not always mean that the drug will not work in the infected patient. This work brings some optimism to the highly worrying problem of the increasing resistance to antibiotics.”

The Listeria bacteria causes the food-borne disease, listeriosis. It often triggers a brain infection and kills up to 30% of those affected.

To test whether antibiotics are effective, bacteria are taken from patients and tested in the laboratory. These tests measure whether antibiotics can halt the growth of Listeria in laboratory conditions. Such tests are usually a measure of how effective the drug will be in the body.

When tested this way, Listeria had been shown to be resistant to the antibiotic, fosfomycin. As a consequence, this drug has never been considered for the treatment of listeriosis.

Dr Mariela Scortti, lead author on the paper, added: “Our findings warn about the need to revise laboratory methods currently in use to determine the susceptibility or resistance of bacteria to such drugs, so that the tests reflect better what actually happens in the body.”

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About: University of Bristol
The University College of Bristol opened in 1876, after six years of discussions and controversy, in a bid to bring university culture to the provinces. It was the first college in the country to admit men and women on an equal footing.

The University’s Research and Enterprise Development (RED) division was launched in 2000 to stimulate and support an entrepreneurial culture and encourage the growth of technology-based business.

2003 saw the completion of the Dorothy Hodgkin building, named after the University’s fifth Chancellor. The £18 million building is dedicated to research in neuroendocrinology. 2003 also saw the opening of the University’s £5 million Centre for Sport, Exercise and Health.

Work on a new, state-of-the-art engineering building is due to be completed in early 2004. The £20 million BLADE project (Bristol Laboratory for Advanced Dynamics Engineering) will bring together the Engineering Faculty’s six departments to establish Europe’s most advanced dynamics engineering research facilities.

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