Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most widespread and annoying infections affecting millions of people every year annually. The biggest problem of urinary diseases are recurrences, the increasing resistance of uropathogens to commonly used antibiotics, as well as the high health care costs of afflicted persons. Uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains (UPECs) are the most dominant etiologic agent of community-acquired infections of this type. During UTI pathogenesis, UPECs utilize various virulence factors, especially mono- and polyadhesive appendages of the chaperone-usher secretion pathway (CUP) required for adhesion, invasion and biofilm formation. The commonly used antibiotics for UTI treatment are usually effective, but their long-term utility may affect the gut microbiota of treated individuals and cause a selection of drug resistant uropathogenic variants. Due to the increasing resistance of UPEC strains to antibiotics via the evolution of specific defense mechanisms there is a need to develop alternative methods and therapeutic strategies to fight UTIs (vaccines, receptor analogues, pilicides and curlicides, bacterial interference or phagotherapy). Such therapeutic approaches usually target the processes enabling uropathogens to survive within urinary tract and cause recurrent infections.
Authors
Additional information
- DOI
- Digital Object Identifier link open in new tab 10.18388/abp.2018_2787
- Category
- Publikacja w czasopiśmie
- Type
- artykuł w czasopiśmie wyróżnionym w JCR
- Language
- angielski
- Publication year
- 2019
