Thaindian News

Washington, March 22 (IANS) Recent research aboard the Space Shuttle is giving scientists a better grasp of how infectious disease occurs in space and could improve astronaut health and provide superior treatments for people.

The research involves an opportunistic pathogen known as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the same bacterium that caused astronaut Fred Haise to become sick during the Apollo 13 mission to the moon in 1970.

Scientists studying the bug aboard the Shuttle hope to unlock the mysteries of how disease-causing agents work. They believe the research can lead to advanced vaccines and therapies to better fight infections.

The findings are based on flight experiments with microbial pathogens on NASA space shuttle missions to the station and appear in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

“For the first time, we’re able to see that two very different species of bacteria - Salmonella and Pseudomonas - share the same basic regulating mechanism… that micro-manages many of the microbes’ responses to the spaceflight environment,” said Cheryl Nickerson, associate professor in infectious diseases and vaccinology, Arizona State University (ASU).

“We have shown that spaceflight affects common regulators in both bacteria that invariably cause disease in healthy individuals [Salmonella] and those that cause disease only in people with compromised immune systems [Pseudomonas].”

By studying the global gene expression patterns in bacterial pathogens like Pseudomonas and Salmonella, Nickerson’s team learned more about how they react to reduced gravity, an Arizona statement said.