Scientists have found an antibiotic-free way of treating ‘golden staph’ skin infections that are the scourge of some cancer patients, and a threat to hospital-goers everywhere.
The lab study from researchers at the University of Copenhagen utilized an artificial version of an enzyme that’s naturally produced by bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria), and used it to eradicate Staphylococcus aureus, or golden staph, in biopsy samples from people with skin lymphoma.
“To people who are severely ill with skin lymphoma, staphylococci can be a huge, sometimes insoluble problem, as many are infected with a type of Staphylococcus aureus that is resistant to antibiotics,” explains immunologist Niels Ødum of the University of Copenhagen.
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