UC San Diego

The emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria has become a worldwide concern. Our goal was to develop a new strategy to treat antibiotic resistant bacterial infections. We investigated whether bacteria are killed by the Mineralization by Inhibitor Exclusion (MIE) mechanism. This mechanism exploits the size exclusion characteristics of the bacterial cell wall, and therefore has no impact on mammalian cells. Our studies demonstrate that live Staphylococcus aureus are calcified by the MIE mechanism, and that calcification kills bacteria. The MIE procedure kills bacteria within hours at room temperature and physiological pH, and requires only calcium, phosphate, and a macromolecular calcification inhibitor