Injection to help stop bladder infections

RESEARCHERS in the U.S. are investigating whether a new jab can stop urinary tract infections (UTIs) recurring.

Normally E. coli bacteria, the chief cause of UTIs, attach themselves to a sugar, mannose, which glues itself and the E. coli to the gut and bladder wall.

A team has been testing jabs of a similar molecule, mannoside, that still encourages the E. coli to stick to them but which doesn’t itself attach to the gut wall.

After giving mice three mannoside jabs, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine found that most E. coli had been eliminated from the bladder and reduced a hundredfold from the gut.