Scientists Find a Shared Weak Spot in Some of the World's…

Scientists Find a Shared Weak Spot in Some of the World's Deadliest Gut Bacteria E. coli and Shigella cause hundreds of millions of infections every year, and remain among the leading causes of fatal diarrhoeal disease in children. Despite decades of research, there is still no effective vaccine against either. A new study published in PNAS, led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, may have finally found a way forward, a weak spot shared by multiple dangerous gut pathogens. The core problem with vaccine development so far: The bacterial features vaccines usually target vary widely between different strains of these pathogens, making a single, broadly protective vaccine extremely difficult to design. What researchers found instead: Before these bacteria can cause disease, they first need to break through the gut's protective mucus layer. Researchers discovered that enterotoxigenic E. coli, Shigella, and several other diarrhoea-causing bacteria all rely on three closely related enzymes to cut t