DOCTORS in Southampton have developed a new nose drop containing a friendly bacteria that could help prevent meningitis and other infections.

Professor Robert Read and his colleagues at the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre have inserted a gene into a harmless bacterium that can live inside the nose.

They hope the modified bacteria will protect against the bacterial species responsible for causing a severe type of meningitis.

About ten per cent of adults carry Neisseria meningitidis, the cause of meningococcal meningitis, in the back of their nose and throat without suffering any ill effects.

But in some cases the bacterium can invade the bloodstream, causing life-threatening infections including meningitis and blood poisoning.

In a previous study, the research team found that inoculating adults with a friendly bacterial strain, known as Nlac prevented them carrying N. meningitidis at the same time.

Now they hope that genetically enhancing the bacteria with a protein will increase Nlac's ability to protect against the meningitis-causing bacteria.

If successful, it could be possible to prevent the spread of infection or control an outbreak of the disease.

The concept of using friendly bacteria to tackle infections is already helping doctors to treat inflammatory bowel disease and Clostridium difficile infections.

But clinical trials involving the new nose drop will be the first time a genetically modified bacteria has been used to try to prevent infections that develop in the nose and throat.

Prof Read said: "We have already shown that placing Nlac in the nose of healthy adults caused no harm to the volunteers, the bacteria settled and it caused an immune response which we believe could prevent the acquisition of harmful bacteria.

"Now, following extensive work in the laboratory, we have developed a nose drop which includes Nlac that has been enhanced with a gene to help broaden its effect.

"The next stage of this process is to test the drops on healthy volunteers in a clinical trial to ensure the strain of bacteria we have created is going to stay - and grow - in the nose.

“If successful we will have a future therapy we can adapt to combat other diseases caused by bacteria that breed in the nasal pathway such as pneumonia and ear disease.”

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