Friday, 21 November 2008

Work by a researcher at The University of Western Australia that could lead to the prevention of infections such as meningitis and bacteremia has been published in the November issue, in the prestigious "Journal of Biological Chemistry".

Dr Charlene Kahler, senior lecturer in UWA's School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences, said with her colleagues she was interested in understanding how the bacterial pathogen Neisseria meningitidis causes disease in humans.  The microorganism is transferred between people in respiratory droplets and causes rapidly fatal blood poisoning in young children.  Available vaccines are not completely effective and about 400 cases occur in Australia each year.

"My research is directed at understanding how this organism causes disease," Dr Kahler said.  "Like many microorganisms, it synthesises proteins and exports them out of the cell. These exported proteins help the microorganism invade and grow inside the human body.  One of the common features of these proteins is that they are folded and held in the correct conformation by a special bond - the disulfide bond.

"The bond is incorporated into the protein by an enzyme called an oxidoreductase.  Without oxidoreductases, many pathogenic bacteria cannot cause any disease at all.  Although the enzyme is found in most microorganisms, it isn't clear how it recognises the proteins into which it adds the bond.

"In collaboration with Dr Martin Scanlon at Monash University, the oxidoreductase from Neisseria meningitidis was crystallised and the structure defined.  This information will allow future studies into how to develop molecules that interfere with the function of the oxidoreductase enzyme and hence prevent microbial infections," Dr Kahler said.

Dr Kahler was part of a team of researchers from UWA and Monash.

Media references

Dr Charlene Kahler , School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical  (+61 8)  9346 2058
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716

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