(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- New insight into ancient bacteria may spur the development of a novel cystic fibrosis (CF) treatment.

People who have CF suffer from an over-production of thick, sticky mucus in the lungs that traps bacteria. The lung infection Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the leading cause of death in those patients. Pigments called phenazines are responsible for the blue-green mucus. For decades, phenazines have wrongly been believed to be antibiotics P. aeruginosa produces to kill off other bacterial competitors residing in the lungs. Now researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology say they are mostly signaling molecules that allow P. aeruginosa to infiltrate and colonize in the lungs.

They discovered phenazines produce a smooth biofilm surface that provides a cozy home for the bacteria. The less phenazine there is, the less prosperous the colony. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say this new insight points to targeting phenazines as a way to treat P. aeruginosa infections.

"We have a long way to go before being able to test this idea, but the hope is that if survival in the lung is influenced by phenazine -- or some other electron-shuttling molecule or molecules --tampering with phenazine trafficking might be a potential way to make antibiotics more effective," Dianne K. Newman, Ph.D., head of the MIT lab, was quoted as saying.

SOURCE: American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 48th Annual Meeting, December 13-17, 2008, San Francisco, CA