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What We Did
The bacterium Staphylococcus aureus causes a range of infections from common skin infections to infections associated with surgical implants like hip replacements, heart, bone and blood infections, toxic shock syndrome and pneumonia. What helps S. aureus’s infect humans so well is their ability to persist in the body.
The same is true of the bacteria from another persistent pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes the disease tuberculosis. Dr Johnston and her group have been investigating how vitamin K2 (also called menaquinone), helps both of these bacteria be so successful as pathogens.
Who Was Involved
- Royal Society Te Apārangi
- Canterbury Medical Research Foundation
- Maurice Wilkins Centre for Molecular Biodiscovery
Why It Matters
S. aureus is listed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as one of the 12 families of bacteria that poses the greatest threat to human health, and New Zealand has among the highest reported incidence of infections with the bacterium.
Meanwhile, approximately 1/3 of the world’s population is latently infected with this M. tuberculosis and in 2019 alone tuberculosis killed approximately 2 million people worldwide, more than any other infectious disease.
Multi-drug resistance has caused both of these bacteria to become harder to treat in recent years, the outcome of this research could ultimately lead to the development of broader range of antibiotics.
