Bacterial infections in the sinuses of patients with cystic fibrosis are surprisingly similar

The collaboration of microbiologists, clinicians, and experts on bacterial evolution has shown that, over time, the highly adapted bacterial communities in the sinuses of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients have become more fragmented and experience erosion of their genomes.

In a paper published today in Cell Reports, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine announced that their findings are that in the sinuses, the size and structure of the pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa population is very large.

Dr.

Cystic fibrosis is an incurable genetic disease that affects thousands of people around the world.

However, although bacterial infections are associated with worse disease outcomes in CF patients, doctors have little knowledge of how these infections first formed

"The sinuses are like the Wild West," said Dr.

Inspired by the study of the ancient relationship between bacteria and insect hosts, the researchers used advanced genomic research and state-of-the-art imaging techniques to analyze the population of Pseudomonas aeruginosa extracted from the sinuses of CF patients

Their analysis showed that the evolution of Pseudomonas aeruginosa has gone through two stages

This insight may help rethink the treatment of chronic bacterial infections: Researchers recommend focusing on mutations caused by the most powerful evolutionary pressure and genome adaptation and erosion patterns, rather than targeting red herring mutations

Dr.

"There is a view that, apart from the theory of evolution, everything in biology is meaningless," Armbruster added