Bloomberg reports on Carnegie Mellon research finding that an element called manganese might be key to preventing E. coli infections like one that led to an outbreak in Europe in 2011.
Manganese, commonly found in nature, protected cells against as much as 4,000 times the amount of that toxin required to cause death in the lab, according to scientists in the journal Science. In a study, mice dosed with manganese were resistant to the poison.
That toxin, called Shiga, caused the severe diarrhea and kidney damage seen in the European outbreak. Antibiotics aren’t effective and may make the poison worse by causing the bacteria to burst open, releasing more Shiga and making patients sicker. There is no treatment for the infections, which sicken 150 million worldwide and kill more than 1 million each year, according to the study authors.
"An inexpensive, accessible treatment -- not a designer drug -- is the ideal solution," said Adam Linstedt, a biologist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and a study author, in a statement. Most of the illnesses from Shiga take place in the developing world, so cheapness is important, he said.
Original source: Bloomberg
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