Anthrax bacteria weakness is reported

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 28 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers have identified a weakness in the defenses of the anthrax bacterium that might be exploited to produce new antibiotics.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New York University scientists determined nitric oxide is a critical part of Bacillus anthracis's defense against the immune response launched by cells infected with the bacterium. Anthrax bacteria that cannot produce nitric oxide succumb to the immune system's attack.

MIT Professor Stephen Lippard, an author of a paper on the work, said antibiotics developed to capitalize on the vulnerability could be effective against other bacteria that employ the same defense system. Those bacteria include Staphylococcus aureus, which commonly causes infections in hospitals and can be extremely drug-resistant.

The study that included Konstantin Shatalin of the New York University School of Medicine is detailed in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.