San Antonio, Texas - December 20, 2011
It's a tiny bacterium that causes a diverse range of sickness, everything from respiratory illness to gastro problems. But it's what "mycoplasma pneumoniae" does after the initial infection is gone that's an unraveling mystery.
"The organism after infecting and after we feel better still lives in the airway and makes this toxin that we discovered a few years ago that causes an inflammatory response," microbiologist Joel Baseman said.
That may help explain why asthma is on the rise. Apparently, chronic inflammation caused by the toxin sets people up to develop allergies and asthma. And that toxin is a potential target for drug interventions or even a vaccine. Microbiologists at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio are dedicating themselves to find a way to battle the bug. It's a quest with wide-ranging implications. By understanding the biologic functioning of this insidious toxin, scientists here hope to be at the forefront of a way to test for it and get rid of it.
"The development of vaccines or drug therapy is likely to improve health across the board, not only with asthma which is well over 20, 25 million cases in the United States, but other airway diseases. It's a microscopic invader but we're going to get it," Baseman said.
That research is being funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Kleberg Foundation.
