EXPLORING KNOWLEDGE
BY HEATHER BUSCHMAN , PH . D . ’ 08
YOU CAN THANK YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM for protection from the many disease-causing bacteria you ’ re faced with every day . You only get an infection when it drops its guard . Yet current antibiotics have just one narrow focus : Kill the bacteria .
“ We only treat bacterial infections with chemicals that , in a test tube , show that they are lethal to bacteria ,” says Victor Nizet , M . D ., professor in the UC San Diego School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences . That approach has worked for years , but we now face a growing threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria . We also now have a greater appreciation for the negative health consequences of wiping out beneficial microbes during a course of antibiotics . Instead of targeting bacteria , Nizet says , we need to find new ways to give the immune system an advantage .
To illustrate , Nizet compares bacterial infections to a home robbery , and your immune system to a ninja . “ If your home is usually protected by a ninja , but a thief breaks in while he ’ s momentarily napping , it makes more sense to just wake up the ninja , rather than call in an entire SWAT team that might wreck your whole house .”
“ IT MAKES MORE SENSE TO JUST WAKE UP THE NINJA , RATHER THAN CALL IN AN ENTIRE SWAT TEAM THAT MIGHT WRECK YOUR WHOLE HOUSE .”
Nizet and his team are now taking a more holistic approach to fighting bacterial infections . Instead of focusing solely on killing the bacteria , they attack on two fronts : 1 ) boost the immune system so it ’ s more capable of fighting the infection on its own , and 2 ) block the mechanisms bacteria use to establish infection and defend themselves against the immune system .
These two approaches parallel the two hottest approaches to treating cancer — immunotherapy , in which cancer cells are “ de-cloaked ” so they ’ re more easily detected and cleared by the immune system , and targeted therapies , in which a drug targets a molecule specific to cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone .
“ It ’ s time to apply some of the creativity we ’ ve seen in the war on cancer to find new ways to treat bacterial infections ,” Nizet says . “ After all , the number of deaths worldwide are almost equal .”
14 TRITON | WINTER 2016