Joseph Mizgerd and his colleague Lee Quinton found that a mutated gene in the liver  can help stop infections such as pneumonia, according to a BU press release. He published his research in The Journal of Clinical Investigation online Tuesday.

“While the acute-phase response was discovered in 1930, the mechanism and meaning behind the changes in certain blood protein concentrations are not well understood,” Mizgerd said in a press release.

Mizgerd and Quinton discovered the significance of the acute-phase response – when blood proteins change – during a lung infection, Mizgerd said in an interview with The Daily Free Press.

This identification allows researchers to discover why the changes matter.

In the study, researchers mutated two genes in liver cells, which create the blood proteins that change during an acute-phase response, according to the press release.

Before an infection, the mutated genes had no effect.

When made to interact with pneumonia, however, the mutations prevented changes in blood proteins.

“It’s really important for preventing dissemination of infection out of that local fight,” Mizgerd said. “If you have pneumonia . . .  [it] often progresses to what’s called bacteremia, a blood stream infection, but this acute response from the liver changes to blood proteins [to keep the infection from spreading].”

Mizgerd said the research may have a number of implications for basic medical care.

“A lot of these proteins are measured in patients already, so we see that they change in response to acute diseases like pneumonia or chronic diseases like acrosclerosis,” he said.

Tracking these changes will aid in the treatment of different ailments, Mizgerd added.

“Those changes in proteins tell us if [patients] are getting better or if they’re getting worse of if they’re having new types of changes,” he said.

“Instead of just being in the intensive period known for trauma they might have an infection on top of the original trauma that originally put them in the hospital.”

Other members of the research team include BUSM Professor Stephen Pelton, Computational Biomedicine Chief Avrum Spira and Plumonary Center Assistant Professor Matthew Jones, according to the press release.