Protein that can dismantle the VRE bacterium
Researchers at NMBU have found a protein that can dismantle resistant bacteria of the type recently found at Sørlandet Hospital, Nationen reports.
At the Norwegian Environment and Biological Sciences University (NMBU) on Ås, a research group has found a protein that breaks the bacterium Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci (VRE), the newspaper writes.
– We recently found a small protein that seems to work very well against this bacterium, says Professor at the Faculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science at NMBU, Dzung Diep.
The work was recently published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Microbiology, and Diep believes that the protein can be used against the bacteria in five to ten years if researched further.
– The preparation must first be through a development process and several steps with clinical testing. But the preparation we found is very effective and has a great potential, so I strongly believe we can get it to work.
VRE, which was recently discovered at Sørlandet Hospital, is resistant to multiple antibiotics.
It therefore spreads rapidly in hospital environments where despite that the antibiotic use is high. The same bacterium was found at Oslo University Hospital earlier this year and at St. Olav’s Hospital in Trondheim and Orkdal Hospital in 2014.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
