UMMS study shows how novel mechanism in P. aeruginosa bacteria disables ribosome
Understanding of biological process could lead to potential therapeutic for disabling protein synthesis in tumor cells
By Jim Fessenden
December 11, 2020
A new study by Alejandro Vasquez-Rifo, PhD, and Victor Ambros, PhD, shows that certain strains of
Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a rod-shaped bacterial pathogen that causes disease in plants and animals, including humans, have a unique mechanism for disabling and degrading the ribosome in its host cells. The study, published in
PLOS Biology, points to a mechanism that may be harnessed by scientists in the lab or by clinicians to target tumor cells or perhaps even block the mechanisms that make certain pathogens virulent.