Study unravels antibiotic resistance in MRSA ‘superbug’ infections March 9, 2021UCLA Researchers applied a new approach pioneered at UCLA to predict which methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, infections will fail to respond to antibiotic treatment. By focusing on epigenetics — changes to gene expression that can’t be detected by standard DNA sequencing — the study examined how the immune system recognizes dangerous superbugs and works with antibiotics to clear them. The Staphylococcus aureus bacterium can live harmlessly on a person’s skin and in their nose, occasionally causing mild infections that can be treated with standard antibiotics. When it enters the bloodstream, however, it can transform into a virulent and life-threatening pathogen that doesn’t respond to most antibiotic treatments.