Micro-bladder model offers clues to stopping recurrent UTIs
Researchers have developed a 3D micro-bladder model to study why urinary tract infections (UTIs) frequently recur. The study suggests that phage therapy may be more effective than antibiotics at eliminating bacteria hiding in bladder tissue.
Why it matters
Offers a potential breakthrough in treating chronic infections that are currently resistant to standard antibiotic treatments.
edited by Gaby Clark , reviewed by Robert Egan
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Add as preferred source Senior author Professor Jennifer Rohn (UCL Division of Medicine) pipetting in her laboratory. Credit: Jennifer Rohn. A lab-grown micro bladder may explain why urinary tract infections (UTIs) return so frequently, according to a study led by researchers at UCL, the University of Oxford and the University of Leicester.
The study, published in Nature Communications , shows that phage therapy—the use of tiny viruses to kill bacteria without harming people—could help reduce recurrent infections, which happen when the bacteria responsible for UTIs "hide" in the tissue of the bladder.
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