Microbiology. Fighting bacterial fire with bacterial fire.

Work presented last week at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in San Francisco suggests that applying a harmless bacterium or its products to surgical wounds may thwart infections by the dangerous pathogen Staphylococcus aureus, a major cause of hospital-acquired infections. Although physicians have previously pitted one bacterium against another to prevent infections of the intestinal and genitourinary tracts, this is the first attempt to use a friendly microbe to prevent infection of surgical wounds, say experts. The findings also point to a possible mechanism for this "bacterial interference." They suggest that a protein secreted by the harmless bacterium prevents the pathogen from getting a foothold in injured tissue.