SAN DIEGO -- Researchers have discovered a protein that may lead to a vaccine against the bacteria that cause strep throat, according to a University of California, San Diego-led study released Thursday.

The bacteria, known as Group A Streptococcus, cause a wide variety of human diseases including strep throat, rheumatic fever and the "flesh-eating" syndrome called necrotizing fasciitis.

Engineering a protein found on Streptococcus bacteria could help scientists develop a vaccine, according to UCSD.

According to the study, step infections afflict more than 600 million people each year and kill 400,000 worldwide.

The study was published by Partho Ghosh, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry in UCSD's Division of Physical Sciences; Victor Nizet, professor of pediatrics and pharmacy at the UCSD School of Medicine; Case McNamara, a postdoctoral fellow at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation; Madeleine Cunningham, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center; and postgraduate researchers Annelies Zinkernagel and Pualine Macheboeuf.

The study will be published Friday in the journal Science.