Woman suffering from abdominal pain. (Photo by: BSIP / Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Universal Image Group through Getty Images
Researchers know that the presence of E.coli bacteria is responsible for the most common patient diseases – urinary tract infections (UTIs) – the frequency of life is around 60 percent in women. A recent study published in PLOS Pathogens has found that a DNA-damaging bacterial toxin called colibactin is produced in people with UTIs.
The researchers also found that urinary E.coli strains – causing 80 percent of all UTIs – and the archetypal E.. coli UTI89 strain was detected extracting colibactin.
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are one of the most common bacterial infections, affecting approximately 150 million people each year. The severity of these infections ranges from asymptomatic to developing sepsis if left untreated over time, which can be fatal.
Recurrence is frequent because about 30 percent of women experience a new UTI event after their first infection resolves. UTIs are also a major cause of antibiotic treatment and thus contribute significantly to the global antibiotic resistance issue.
Jean-Philippe Nougayrède and Eric Oswald of Université de Toulouse, and colleagues, analyzed urine samples from 223 patients with UTIs obtained in the community at Toulouse University Hospital, France. They found evidence of colibactin synthesis in 55 of the samples examined. In a mouse model of UTI, severe DNA damage by colibactin bacteria was detected in bladder cells. According to the authors, the findings support the notion that UTIs may play a role in bladder cancer.
“Currently the main risk factors for tobacco bladder cancers are professional knowledge of solutions, which are being studied more frequently than UTIs. However, a recent large-scale breast cancer case-control study worldwide showed a consistent association between regular UTI and increased risk of urinary breast cancer, ”the researchers wrote.
They also suggested that uropathogenic E.coli should be studied as an additional risk factor, especially in cases of chronic and recurrent diseases, regardless of whether symptoms are present or not.
The authors conclude, “Our work suggests a more rigorous follow-up of patients who regularly suffer from urinary tract infections, with systematic monitoring for colibactin symptoms in the urinary tract. urine, but also more proactively, by recommending therapeutic approaches aimed at modeling the combination of the intestinal microbiota, which represents the main reservoir of the E. coli bacteria involved in these urinary tract infections. “