MedicalResearch.com | Hebrew University Study: How E.coli Rewires Its Attachment Strategy to Overcome Resistance

Atypical enteropathogenic E. coli strains, which lack traditional grip structures, compensate for attachment loss by evolving changes in FimH that enhance binding to human intestinal cells, a pattern seen in both lab-evolved strains and patient-derived isolates. This convergent evolution suggests FimH-modified attachment as a key mechanism and a potential target for anti-adhesion therapies to combat EPEC infections, with implications for epidemiological testing and treatment strategies.

MedicalResearch.com | Hebrew University Study: How E.coli Rewires Its Attachment Strategy to Overcome Resistance # Hebrew University Study: How E.coli Rewires Its Attachment Strategy to Overcome Resistance ## 18 Sep Hebrew University Study: How E.coli Rewires Its Attachment Strategy to Overcome Resistance Posted at 23:15h in Microbiology by Marie Benz MD FAAD MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Noam Yedidi PhD Student Prof. Ilan Rosenshine, PhD Etta Rosensohn Chair in Bacteriology Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada (IMRIC) Hebrew University of Jerusalem Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) is a leading cause of diarrheal illness in children worldwide, capable of impairing physical and cognitive development and progressing to life-threatening disease. New research from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem now reveals how so-called atypical EPEC strains — which lack the surface structures used by classical EPEC to grip intestinal cells — have evolved a compensatory attachment strategy. The findings, published in Gut Microbes, combine experimental evolution with clinical bacterial genomics to identify the same evolutionary solution independently in both lab and patient-derived bacteria. According to the NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases), pathogenic E. coli strains — including those causing intestinal and urinary tract infections — remain a major global public health burden, and understanding their attachment mechanisms is central to developing new anti-adhesion therapies that could help address rising antibiotic resistance. …

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