Scientists identify 39 bacterial pathogens

BERLIN, April 23 (UPI) -- German scientists say they have identified 39 bacterial pathogens that use toxins to manipulate human host cells to create infections.

The researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry and the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine said several bacterial pathogens use toxins to manipulate human host cells, but until now scientists have been able to identify only a few of the proteins that interact with bacterial toxins. In the new study, researchers succeeded for the first time in systematically investigating the cellular target sites of the bacterial toxins.

"Surprisingly, the toxins are not optimally adapted to the structures of human proteins," said Matthias Selbach of MDC.

While binding relatively weakly to individual human proteins, they are able to influence several different proteins simultaneously, he said.

"A single bacterial toxin seems to function like a master key that can access different host cell proteins in parallel," Selbach said. "Perhaps it is due to this strategy that bacteria are able to attack very different cells and, thus, to increase their survival chances in the host."

He said he hopes the findings will lead to improvements in the treatment of bacterial infections, since instead of non-specific antibiotic therapy, new drugs could target the signaling mechanisms that are disrupted by the bacterial toxins.

The research appears in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.