OU Researchers Find MRSA Help

A web-style piece about the research process for a new treatment of MRSA, and what that would mean for patients. Originally written in 2016.

You can find the podcast-style version of the story here.

A routine case of acne took a turn for the worse for previous patient Jerussa Lapeyre when the top surface of her cheekbone began swelling and obscuring her vision. It was only a matter of days between the discovery of the infection and the unceremonious surgery.

“When I went to the doctor, they said it was way too close to my eye and immediately started cutting. I remember looking in the mirror and just seeing this hole right above my eye, and I had to have a cloth on my face for a week straight,” said Lapeyre.

She had contracted MRSA, a type of staph infection which has perfected its resistance against the immune system and many widely-used antibiotics. For her case, which resurfaced with a vengeance a year later, even the two strongest antibiotics in the facility weren’t enough unless they were alternated back and forth.

Researchers at the University of Oklahoma have discovered a new formula for treating MRSA infections, and are on the road to gaining approval through further testing and trials. As the bacteria continues to evolve resistances against existing medication, patients under less lucky circumstances need all the help their immune systems can get.

“In the form of staph epidermidis, which is the most common bacteria on everybody’s skin, it’s usually not a pathogen, which is to say it won’t make you sick. Staph aureus is another species of staph which can also live on our skin, and it has the potential to make people really sick to the point of killing them,” said infectious disease specialist Dr. Clifford Wlodaver.

When it comes to quelling the justifiable fears that patients have about MRSA, it helps to be informed. The research process for this antibiotic will also help with publicity for the disease itself, but now that they found the formula, the long journey to hospitals has only just begun.

“Being officially approved to put into humans is a 10- to 15- year process, which can take upwards of a billion dollars altogether. It’s an enormous undertaking to get a new drug into the market. That cost and amount of time is there to protect people so that no harm is done to them, and if we’re not careful with this we can open the world up to a lot of harm. So this isn’t a lack of energy or enthusiasm, or a lack of desire to create something that helps people. It’s just that research takes time, which is just the nature of the beast. There’s an enormous window of time between discovery and the ability to take a pill, if it could even be considered,” said researcher Robert Cichewitz.

Although the work that these researchers do may not be tangible in a pill or an IV bag a decade from now, the possibility of this new line of defense will work wonders for MRSA patients of the future, and the fears that this frightening disease can give them.