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How USF Researchers Are Leading The Fight Against MRSA

By: Cassidy Delamarter, University Communications and Marketing

With two new grants from the National Institutes of Health — totaling more than $4.4 million — University of South Florida microbiology Professor Lindsey Shaw is leading an interdisciplinary effort to stop one of the world's most dangerous bacterial pathogens.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as MRSA, is a type of staph infection that's resistant to most antibiotics. With an arsenal of toxins, it can cause infection in nearly every part of the human body. Despite decades of study, scientists still don't understand how MRSA controls toxin production during infection and its survival strategies. 

"It's adapted to be really good at surviving on surfaces, like carts, shelves, desks, computers and keyboards," Shaw said. "It's just one of the ultimate human pathogens."

For Shaw, the work is personal. At 13, a hip surgery to correct a genetic deformity left him with three surgical pins, two of which became infected with Staphylococcus aureus, a subset of MRSA. What followed was five years of hospital stays and intensive antibiotic treatments.

"That experience gave me a firsthand understanding of how devastating and persistent these infections can be," Shaw said. "It's what drove me to study bacteria and, ultimately, to focus my career on understanding and defeating MRSA. This research is about saving lives."

To accelerate discovery and train the next generation of scientists, Shaw launched an undergraduate antimicrobial resistance lab, giving students hands-on opportunities to study hundreds of strains, including a new one now spreading across Florida.

That strain, dubbed the "snowbird clone," was detected thanks to the 2024 USF CREATE Award, which funded Shaw's partnership with Dr. Kami Kim, professor of medicine and director of the Division of Infectious Disease and International Medicine in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. 

The CREATE Award also supported the launch of the USF Center for Antimicrobial Resistance, which uses genome sequencing to characterize new antibiotic resistant bacteria, such as the snowbird clone. 

First identified in Canada about 15 years ago, the snowbird clone has since migrated south, with 36 of the 65 known cases worldwide detected in Tampa — the highest concentration anywhere. Additional cases in Jacksonville, Gainesville and Miami suggest the strain is establishing itself across Florida. The study — recently published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases — is the first to detail how this rare strain functions and to map its genetic code. The findings indicate that MRSA is expanding, evolving and becoming more genetically diverse in patient populations than previously recognized. 

The discovery was made by Emily Felton, who recently graduated from USF's cell and molecular biology doctoral program. She says the research helped her realize her passion to support clinicians. "As a scientist and a researcher, I want to help the clinicians and hospitals improve patient outcomes," Felton said. She plans to stay at USF as a postdoctoral researcher to continue working alongside Shaw and Kim, who plan to further analyze the snowbird clone.

"Our success reflects the value of investing in interdisciplinary teams," Kim said. "The CREATE Award allowed us to bring together expertise from microbiology, clinical medicine and genomics, which led to discoveries we never anticipated."

According to Shaw, the big question now is whether the snowbird clone will burn itself out, or dominate across the U.S.  With his new NIH funding, he plans to dig deeper into MRSA's genetic strategies, with the goal of finding weaknesses that can be targeted by future treatments. Shaw's discoveries could help curb the spread of dangerous strains in Florida and beyond.

"Our work is a team effort," Shaw said. "We're bringing together students, clinicians and researchers to tackle urgent public health threats right here in our community."

NY Giants' Daniel Fells' MRSA Battle Highlights Infection Risk In Contact Sports

— -- A dire infection that has left an NFL player facing possible amputation has highlighted the dangers professional players can face from drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or staph infection.

New York Giants tight end Daniel Fells reportedly faces a possible foot amputation after suffering a methicillin-resistant staph infection that stemmed from an injury to his ankle during practice a week ago.

The player reportedly had an ankle injury and then received a cortisone shot to help him heal. The player then reported a week of foot and ankle pain before being taken to the hospital with a fever on Oct. 2, according to NFL.Com. He's now on an IV antibiotic treatment and has undergone five surgeries to help him recover from the infection.

Experts say the story highlights how athletes, especially those in contact sports, can face dangerous MRSA infections.

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Dr. Buddy Creech, pediatric infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has worked with professional teams on how to clean up after a MRSA outbreak and has studied how both contact and non-contact athletes can develop the bacteria.

Creech was the co-author of a study looking at how 377 college athletes were affected by MRSA in both contact and non-contact sports.

"Contact sports participants, even more than non-contact sport participants, [were] at a much higher risk for colonization for MRSA," Creech explained. "Theoretically those players are also higher risk for infection."

At least 30 percent of the contact sport players showed evidence of colonization by MRSA bacteria at some point, three times as high as what would be seen in the general population, Creech said.

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But colonized with the bacteria does not mean a person is infected, Creech noted, saying it just indicates a person could be more likely to develop the infection.

The theory is that athletes in contact sports are far more likely to have abrasions or injuries where the bacteria can invade into the body, Creech said.

The bacteria that cause a MRSA infection is a common kind of bacteria that often does not lead to infection, but that an open wound can be an easy entry point for the bacteria, Creech said.

In the case of Fells, Creech said there is a possibility that the cortisone shot -- or corticosteroid -- could have affected his immune system near the ankle wound.

If a particularly virulent strain of MRSA or staph bacteria is present in a team, officials can clean the locker room and have players take decontaminating baths to stop that particular strain. However, Creech said it is nearly impossible to completely stop any strain of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria from being present.

"This is a normal germ that we are encountering," he noted.

The key to stopping transmissions is to clean highly contaminated items, such as a trainer's table or towels used by a person with a staph infection, Creech said, noting that it is particularly dangerous for people to share razors since they can nick the skin and spread infection.

Nearly 25% Of MRSA Bloodstream Infections In Tennessee Linked To Injection Drug Use

Researchers identified MRSA bloodstream infections using the National Healthcare Safety Network, a nationwide reporting system through which acute care hospitals in Tennessee track laboratory-identified MRSA bloodstream infections from inpatient units and emergency departments.

For the study, they examined 7,646 MRSA bloodstream infection cases among patients older than 13 years.

Researchers found MRSA bloodstream infection cases increased 17.7 percent over the study period.

A MRSA bloodstream infection case was classified as related to infection drug use if the patient had visited the hospital in the six months prior or after and been given a drug use diagnosis.

Injection drug use-related infection cases represented 24.1 percent of the total bloodstream infection cases from 2015 to 2017. The prevalence of injection drug use-related cases increased from 16.1 percent in 2015 to 29.9 percent in 2017.

Researchers described the rise in MRSA bloodstream infection cases in Tennessee as "alarming" and said that increase in injection drug use-related bloodstream infection cases "suggests an association between the drug-use crisis and MRSA [bloodstream infections]."

More articles on infection control:Medicare spent $41M+ on sepsis in 2018, HHS saysMandatory surgical jackets, bouffant caps in OR don't cut infection risk, study findsEMR 'nudge' cuts unneeded C. Diff tests, study finds

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