A BACTERIUM that repeatedly infects hospital patients may be destroying the memory of immune cells that are supposed to attack it.
Gregg Silverman at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has shown that Staphylococcus aureus produces a toxin called SpA that binds to human B-cells, making them commit suicide before they can produce memory cells to destroy future infections of the bug (Journal of Experimental Biology, DOI: 10.1084/jem20020552). Antibiotic-resistant strains of S. aureus such as MRSA have become a major problem.
