Scientists at Monash University say they discovered how the gonorrhea superbug evades the immune system, opening up a way for therapies that prevent this process and allowing the body's natural defenses to kill the bug. The team published its study (“Outer Membrane Vesicles from Neisseria gonorrhoeae Target PorB to Mitochondria and Induce Apoptosis”) in PLOS Pathogens.

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Thomas Naderer, Ph.D., and Pankaj Deo, Ph.D., and their team from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute describe how Neisseria gonorrhoea creates vesicles that attack immune cells. 

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Using super-resolution microscopy, the team found that these membrane vesicles interacted with macrophages, triggering these to die in an orchestrated suicide process. Dr. Naderer said that this new understanding of how the gonorrhea bacteria interact and cause the death of immune system cells “may lead to strategies to combat gonorrhea infection and its symptoms”.

The research may also provide information as to how other bacteria evade the immune system and be unaffected by antibiotics, he added.