Targeting Bacterial Abscess Formation

Cutaneous abscesses are some of the most common manifestations of bacterial infections. Abscesses can present as transient painful lumps that resolve without medical intervention, or in severe cases as large deep abscesses associated with bloodstream dissemination. Although many Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria cause abscesses, S. aureus, in particular community-associated MRSA, is the most common causative agent. Once formed, the pus in the walled-off lesion can significantly interfere with the activity of antibiotics to the extent to make antibiotic treatment moderately ineffective when an abscess exceeds a certain size, with scarring posing as an additional problem. In this issue of EBioMedicine (Mansour et al., 2016--in this issue), Hancock and colleagues describe a cationic peptide that primarily targets the formation of abscesses. The peptide was developed from a screen of anti-biofilm peptides (de la Fuente-Nunez et al., 2015) and in vitro prevented or eradicated biofilms formed by both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. In non-vertebrate models of P. aeruginosa infection, it enhanced survival of the host (de la Fuente-Nunez et al., 2015).