The paucity of systemic dissemination of infection in the presence of substantial bacterial colonization of the lungs indicates systemic immunity is essentially intact. Both host factors and immunoevasiveness of the colonizing bacteria combine to render patient with lung disease susceptible to pulmonary infections such that, in spite of aggressive antibiotic therapy, patients usually succomb to terminal lung infections with Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Current therapy consists of broad spectrum antibiotics.
However, increasing bacterial resistance to commonly used antibiotics has created a need for novel therapeutic approaches to treat airway infections. Description Investigators within the Children's Hospital Research Foundation have completed a series of studies which suggest that the administration of a naturally occurring enzyme may be significantly effective in treating bacterial infections of the lung and perhaps other organ systems. The enzyme is a small protein that exists in most body secretions. In vitro, the enzyme lyses bacteria either independently or in synergy with complement. These mice are 12-fold more efficient at clearing airway bacteria than their wild type littermates.