How staph cells dodge the body's immune system
Staph frequently causes skin infections but occasionally can lead to deadly conditions such as sepsis, pneumonia and bloodstream infections, particularly in hospitalized patients whose immune systems could be weakened by illness. One strain of the bacterium, the superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) , is considered one of the top drug-resistant threats in the U.S., causing more than 11,000 deaths per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, the superbug kills more Americans than HIV. "Widespread MRSA infections have prompted routine use of once last-line antibiotics, and this is making the antibiotic resistance problem worse," said George Liu, MD, PhD, co-lead author of the study and a pediatric infectious diseases physician at Cedars-Sinai's Maxine Dunitz Children's Health Center and the F. Widjaja Foundation Inflammatory Bowel and Immunobiology Research Institute. "Our study focuses on why MRSA...