Study demonstrates possibility of treating antibiotic-resistant pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Immediately following severe burns, bacteria reach the wound from different sources, including the patient’s skin, gastrointestinal tract, respiratory tracts and health care-related human contact. Within the wound, bacteria multiply, establish an infection and move from the infected burn wound into the bloodstream, causing serious complications like sepsis, multiple-organ failure and death.
In modern burn units, more than 50% of deaths are attributed to septic shock and organ dysfunction. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic pathogen, is among the different pathogens that cause sepsis in burn patients. This gram-negative, antibiotic-resistant bacterium produces several destructive factors that make it critical to identify alternative treatments.
To help reduce the risk of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection and its associated complications, Abdul Hamood, Ph.D., a professor for the Department of Immunology and Molecular Microbiology at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) School of Medicine, and a team of collaborators investigated the feasibility of developing a topical treatment unrelated to conventional antibiotics that can be used to battle Pseudomonas aeruginosa.