Glue-like bacterial sugar could lead to vaccine

LONDON A study has found that when manipulated with chemicals, a sugar that drug-resistant bacteria secrete triggered an immune response in animals.

The study, presented last week at the Dublin, Ireland, meeting of the Society for General Microbiology used a glue-like sugar that bacteria produce to protect themselves from antibiotics called PNAG.

PNAG alone does not produce an immune response in most people and animals, but the researchers, from the Harvard Medical School, hope that formulations of it do.