The Revolutionary Way for You to Visualize Cystic Fibrosis Microbes
What is Pandorea?
Pandorea is “a new kid on the block” for those with CF. This predatorial organism was first isolated from non-CF patients requiring ventilators to prolong their lives. Now, it's being found more frequently in the respiratory secretions of CF patients.
During the study, researchers were surprised when they also isolated two new strains: Vampirovibrio and Bdellovibrio.
Vampirovibrio is a bacterium that destroys cells by sucking out its contents.
Bdellovibrio, on the other hand, enters cells and feeds on its proteins. They are both considered as “predator bacteria”.
The study findings “suggest that predatory bacteria could be used as a therapeutic strategy to reduce the bacterial load of the lungs of these patients," del Campo said.
The next steps for her team include “cultivating the predator bacteria to understand their ability to survive in the lungs and their interaction with prey, and to try using predator bacteria to control the CF lung microbial”, she noted.
