Acinetobacter baumannii is a gram-negative aerobic bacillus whose importance is increasing because it is the causative agent of a considerable number of nosocomial infections, especially in the intensive care units (ICU). The frequency of nosocomial infections produced by A. baumannii has increased in the last three decades. Moreover, this pathogen also has relevance due to its ability to develop resistance against almost all clinically-used antimicrobials. The emergence of multi- and pan-resistant strains requires the use of new strategies in the treatment and control of the infections caused by this pathogen.
It is known that the human serum contains more than thirty proteins of the complement system, which play an important role in the first line of defense against invading pathogens. While most bacteria are unable to withstand the strong bactericidal activity of human serum, several pathogens, including a large proportion of A. baumannii clinical strains, have evolved mechanisms to resist killing by human serum. Therefore, disrupting the function and/or interaction between bacterial serum resistance factors and the complement system via antibodies or small molecule inhibitor represent a novel immunotherapeutic approach to combat highly problematic infections such as those caused by A. baumannii against which new therapies are badly needed. Thus, the objective of this project is to identify new target proteins involved in serum resistance to develop an alternative treatment against this pathogen.
Speaker: María Luisa Gil Marqués, RCC Fellow, Visiting Researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard University
LOCATION:RCC Conference Room, 26 Trowbridge St., Cambridge MA STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20171122T211500Z DTEND:20171122T221500Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR