Pneumonia is a serious lung disease and a leading cause of death in all age groups. Bacteria are the most common cause in adults, but respiratory viruses and fungal infections can also trigger the disease. Pneumonia arises when the airways become inflamed and filled with fluid in response to an infection. Symptoms include coughing, fever, chills and trouble breathing.
Bacterial pneumonia is usually treated with antibiotics. With the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria, scientists have been seeking new therapies that target underlying disease mechanisms rather than targeting the microbes. To date, few non-antibiotic therapies have been found to improve the outcomes of patients with severe pneumonia.
To learn more about at how bacterial pneumonia harms the lungs at the molecular level, a research team led by Dr. Rama Mallampalli at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine took a closer look at the fluid that naturally bathes the airways and tiny air sacs. The study was supported primarily by NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
As reported in the October 2010 issue of Nature Medicine, the researchers analyzed lung fluid from humans and mice with pneumonia. They discovered abnormally high levels of a fatty molecule, or lipid, called cardiolipin. Cardiolipin is typically found in the outer membranes of mitochondria and bacteria, but it’s also known to be a minor component of healthy lung fluid.
When the scientists administered cardiolipin to mice, the animals’ lung function declined and the resulting tissue damage appeared similar to human pneumonia. Additional experiments confirmed that elevated cardiolipin appears to harm lung tissue.
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