Novel Approaches to Preventing Urinary Tract Infection in Women
Abstract
Urinary tract infections (UTIs), generally caused by Escherichia coli or Staphylococcus saprophyticus, are extremely common among young women. Although UTIs can be treated, we currently lack effective means to prevent frequently UTIs, which occur in 25% of women with first UTI. A necessary prerequisite to UTI is adherence of uropathogens to the vaginal and bladder epithelium. This report describes the third year of progress in a project that defines uropathogenic E. coli and S. saprophyticus-binding glycosphingolipids (GSLs) in the vaginal and bladder epithelium, shown in preliminary studies to function as bacterial receptors, as a prerequisite to the rational design of new agents that will prevent colonization and infection in women. Key progress includes: (a) establishment of in vitro models of primary cultured bladder epithelial and human vaginal epithelial cells; (b) characterization of GSLs expressed by these epithelial cells and of bacterial adherence to them; (c) studies of the effects of exogenous estrogen on GSL expression and bacterial adherence to each of these in vitro model systems; (d) cloning of a potential human al -4Galactosyltransferase; and (e) enzymatic synthesis of globoseries based GSL compounds.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADB257445
Entities
People
- Ann E Stapleton
Organizations
- University of Washington