Scientists have found a clue to the unhealed wounds of veterans of the war in Iraq

(ORDO NEWS) — The resistance of some bacteria to antibiotics is a serious challenge for doctors, because the infections caused by such microorganisms are very difficult to treat.

In addition to the medical industry, the emergence of new strains affects agriculture, especially livestock and poultry. Therefore, researchers are constantly looking for a way to combat such bacteria.

About one of these species, which is called Acinetobacter baumannii, and among doctors there is an informal name “Iraqi stick”, biologists recently told. The nickname came from the fact that this species often causes diseases in veterans of the war in Iraq.

A study of numerous populations of the bacterium showed that in recent years it has changed its metabolism and learned to get energy from human metabolic products.

Kynurenine is a product of amino acid processing, which is present in all cells of the body and has a serious effect on the immune system. It is this that the bacterium absorbs, suppressing the body’s defenses and actively multiplying in it.

“This knowledge will help us develop new treatments to which this microbe has not yet developed increased resistance,” said Professor I. Egersbeger, from the University of Frankfurt.

A related species of this bacterium, which lives ubiquitously in the soil, does not exhibit such properties dangerous to humans, since it does not have genetic changes that allow the absorption of kynurenine.

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