Dr. Daniela Centrón
Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, University of Buenos Aires

Cystic fibrosis and antibiotic resistance, a major cause of infant mortality

Cystic fibrosis (CF), a major cause of infant mortality, is a chronic, progressive, and frequently fatal genetic disease that primarily affects the respiratory and digestive systems in children and young adults. According to the data collected by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, there are about 30,000 Americans, 3,000 Canadians, and 20,000 Europeans with CF. Approximately 2,500 babies are born with CF each year in the United States. Also, about 1 in every 20 Americans is an unaffected carrier of an abnormal "CF gene." These 12 million people are usually unaware that they are carriers. At present, neither gene therapy nor any other kind of treatment exists for the basic causes of cystic fibrosis, although several drug-based approaches are being investigated. In the meantime, the best that doctors can do is to ease the symptoms of cystic fibrosis or slow the progress of the disease so the patient's quality of life is improved. This is achieved by antibiotic therapy combined with treatments to clear the thick mucus from the lungs. For that reason is very important to prevent the emergence of antimicrobial multiresistance in bacteria that usually infects these patients. The most important route for acquisition of antimicrobial resistance is by transposons and integrons, which enhance their spread. In our laboratory we perform basic studies and molecular surveillance of antimicrobial resistance mechanisms from sputum samples of CF patients from Argentina. We are characterizing integrons and transposons in multiresistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates and in an indeterminate genetic species of Burkholderia cepacia complex that we had identified in a cystic fibrosis center from Argentina. This project will consist of the molecular characterization of the antimicrobial resistance mechanisms, identification of their genetic location in the bacterial genome, and establishment of the processes involve in the spread of these genetic elements.