Staphylococcus aureus cystic fibrosis infections

Kahl BC, MeUmann A, Deiwick S, Peters G, Harmsen D (2005) Variation of the polymorphic region X of the protein A gene during persistent airway infection of cystic fibrosis patients reflects two independent mechanisms of genetic change in Staphylococcus aureus. J Chn Microbiol 43 502-505... 

Infections in cystic fibrosis are often due to Staphylococcus aureus, Haemophilus influenzae or Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Infecting organisms need to be identified so that the most appropriate antibiotics can be used. Antibiotics used to treat respiratory infections in cystic fibrosis commonly include ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, flu-cloxacillin and amoxicillin. However, specialist individual therapy is essential for maximum benefit to the patient and avoidance of the development of resistant strains of bacteria. 

An important characteristic of microbial biofilms is their innate resistance to immune system and antibiotic killing (89, 90). This has made microbial biofilms a common and difficult-to-treat cause of medical infections (87,91,92). It has recently been estimated that over 60% of the bacterial infections currently treated in hospitals are caused by bacterial biofilms (91). Several ehronic infections (e.g. respiratory infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the cystic fibrosis lung. Staphylococcal lesions in endocarditis, and bacterial prostatitis, primarily caused by Escherichia coli) have been shown to be mediated by biofilms (93). More notably, biofilms (particularly of Staphylococcus aureus, P. aeruginosa, and E. coli) are also a major cause of infections associated with medical implants (94, 95). The number of implant-associated infections approaches 1 million per year in the United States alone, and their direct medical costs exceed 3 billion annually (96). Thus, there is an urgent need to find novel approaches to eradicate biofilms. 

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