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Listen to this siteTuesday 21 August 2007
This research project will examine how a newly discovered nitric oxide responsive regulator contributes to protection against nitrosative stress and intracellular survival of C. jejuni during infection.
Study Duration : April 2007 to March 2010
Contractor : University of Sheffield and University of Surrey
This is a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/Food Standards Agency research project, funded under the Government Partnership Award (GPA) scheme.
Campylobacter jejuni is the predominant bacterial agent of human gastrointestinal infection in the UK. Whilst the disease in humans is not generally fatal, it is highly unpleasant and a significant public health burden.
As part of the body's first defence against infection, the immune system can generate a toxic gas called nitric oxide (NO) that, when dissolved in the fluid around the infecting bacteria, is able to destroy them. It has recently been discovered that C. jejuni can resist NO. To do this the bacterium must first be able to detect the toxic gas and then produce proteins to neutralise the NO. A putative NO detector and NO responsive regulator (the NssR-regulon) have recently been identified in C. jejuni .
The study will characterise this NO responsive network, identify whether it is essential for infection and investigate how it enables C. jejuni to resist NO. In future, the results could be used to develop novel ways of controlling this bacterium by blocking its ability to resist NO, thus making it sensitive to this killing agent.
Some of the studies main objectives are to
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