Zinc kills bugs that cause pnemonia and meningitis
Zinc can ‘starve’ one of the world’s deadliest bacteria, Streptococcus pneumonia (SP), that causes pneumonia and meningitis and kills over a million people, mainly children and elderly, every year.
Researchers at University of Adelaide and University of Queensland described how Zinc ‘jams shut’ a protein transporter in the bacteria so that it cannot take up Manganese, an essential metal that SP needs to be able to invade and cause disease in humans.
Dr. Christopher McDevitt, Research Fellow in the University of Adelaide’s Research Centre for Infectious Diseases, says, ‘it has been known that zinc plays an important role in the body’s ability to protect against bacterila infection, but this is the first time anyone has been able to show how zinc does it’.
The study reveals the bacterial transporter uses a ‘spring hammer’ mechanism to easily bind the metal. ‘Without Manganese, the bacteria can easily be cleared by the human immune system’, said McDevitt.
Dr. Ajay Sati.
