New discovery permits rapid diagnosis and treatment of sepsis
May 30, 2013 by admin · Leave a Comment
Despite numerous advances in treating infections and disease, effective treatments for sepsis remain elusive. A new discovery published in the June 2013 issue of The FASEB Journal not only could help health care providers predict who is more and less likely to develop sepsis, but it also opens the doors to new therapies that actually address the root cause of the problem, rather than just managing the symptoms. This also has the potential to benefit patients suffering from influenza and other viral infections, as well as chronic inflammatory diseases such as periodontal disease, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Resistance to last-line antibiotic makes bacteria resistant to immune system
May 21, 2013 by admin · Leave a Comment
Bacteria resistant to the antibiotic colistin are also commonly resistant to antimicrobial substances made by the human body, according to a study in mBio®, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. Cross-resistance to colistin and host antimicrobials LL-37 and lysozyme, which help defend the body against bacterial attack, could mean that patients with life-threatening multi-drug resistant infections are also saddled with a crippled immune response. Colistin is a last-line drug for treating several kinds of drug-resistant infections, but colistin resistance and the drug’s newfound impacts on bacterial resistance to immune attack underscore the need for newer, better antibiotics.
The risks of H7N9 infection mapped
May 3, 2013 by admin · Leave a Comment
A map of avian influenza (H7N9) risk is presented in Biomed Central’s open access journal Infectious Diseases of Poverty today. The map is comprised of bird migration patterns, and adding in estimations of poultry production and consumption, which are used to infer future risk and to advise on ways to prevent infection.
Despite superbug crisis, progress in antibiotic development ‘alarmingly elusive’
April 18, 2013 by admin · Leave a Comment
Despite the desperate need for new antibiotics to combat increasingly deadly resistant bacteria, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved only one new systemic antibiotic since the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) launched its 10 x ’20 Initiative in 2010 ? and that drug was approved two and a half years ago.
New bird flu strain seen adapting to mammals, humans
April 12, 2013 by admin · Leave a Comment
A genetic analysis of the avian flu virus responsible for at least nine human deaths in China portrays a virus evolving to adapt to human cells, raising concern about its potential to spark a new global flu pandemic.
Scissor-like enzyme points toward treatment of infectious disease
April 4, 2013 by admin · Leave a Comment
UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report that a pathogen annually blamed for an estimated 90 million cases of food-borne illness defeats a host’s immune response by using a fat-snipping enzyme to cut off cellular communication.
Human trials for Streptococcus A vaccine
February 28, 2013 by admin · Leave a Comment
Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics has launched human trials for a vaccine against Streptococcus A, the germ that causes rheumatic fever.
Severe damage to a patient’s heart is just one of the possible long term consequences of rheumatic fever. Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has twice had heart surgery to repair damage suffered from rheumatic fever when he was a child.
Good bacteria may expunge vancomycin-resistant bacteria from your gut
February 27, 2013 by admin · Leave a Comment
Too much antibiotic can decimate the normal intestinal microbiota, which may never recover its former diversity. That, in turn, renders the GI tract vulnerable to being colonized by pathogens. Now researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, and Centro Superior de Investigación en Salud Pública, Valencia, Spain, show that reintroducing normal microbial diversity largely eliminated vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) from the intestinal tracts of mice. The investigators showed further that the findings may apply to humans. The research is published in the March 2013 issue of the journal Infection and Immunity.
Flu breakthrough: New drug developed to combat flu pandemic
February 21, 2013 by admin · Leave a Comment
The new drug has been proven to be effective in preventing the spread of different strains of influenza in laboratory models ? including resistant strains of the virus.
The breakthrough is the result of a global collaboration between scientists from CSIRO, the University of British Columbia and the University of Bath.
Scientists unveil secrets of important natural antibiotic
February 21, 2013 by admin · Leave a Comment
An international team of scientists has discovered how an important natural antibiotic called dermcidin, produced by our skin when we sweat, is a highly efficient tool to fight tuberculosis germs and other dangerous bugs.
