In May 2023, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta published new cystic fibrosis research led by Marvin Whiteley, PhD, Associate Director of the Emory University and Children’s Center for Cystic Fibrosis and Airways Disease Research.
At the molecular level, the findings show when changes in oxygen levels are perceived by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) a genetic switch occurs causing a chronic lung infection to transform into a life-threatening acute infection.
The gene identified to cause the shift, named sicX by the research team, may also serve as a biomarker for predicting acute infection and as a potential new target for the treatment of chronic P. aeruginosa infections in CF patients.
“Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the leading pathogens infecting the lungs of our CF patients,” says Nael A. McCarty, PhD, Marcus Professor of Cystic Fibrosis at Emory University, and Director of the Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Center for Cystic Fibrosis and Airways Disease Research. “Most patients are chronically infected before they reach age 10 years, and the bacteria linger in a chronic infection, often becoming resistant to antimicrobials. In response to unknown triggers, infection can get ramped up causing a rapid decline in lung health during an ‘acute pulmonary exacerbation.’ The gene identified by Dr. Whiteley in this exciting work may play an important role in controlling this pathway that leads to worse lung disease, and thus may also be a target for therapeutic design.”
