Feature Channels: Drug Resistance

• share
• favorite_border

Some bacteria not only escape being killed by bacteria, they turn it into food. Until now, scientists have understood little about how bacteria manage to consume antibiotics safely, but new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis illuminates key steps in the process. The findings, published April 30 in Nature Chemical Biology, could lead to new ways to eliminate antibiotics from land and water, the researchers said. Environmental antibiotic contamination promotes drug resistance and undermines our ability to treat bacterial infections.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Intermountain Healthcare and University of Utah Health in Salt Lake City have completed a study identifying how community hospitals with fewer than 200 beds can develop antibiotic stewardship programs that work to prevent the growth of antibiotic-resistant organisms, or “superbugs,” which are becoming more common and deadly.

• share
• favorite_border

Notre Dame researchers found that this communication varies across the colony and suggest that this bacterium may develop protective behaviors that contribute to its ability to tolerate some antibiotics.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have learned how bacteria use their sense of touch to initiate infection and trigger the formation of harmful biofilms.

• share
• favorite_border

Each year, farmers in the U.S. purchase tens of millions of pounds of antibiotics approved for use in livestock. When the animals’ manure is reused as fertilizer or bedding, traces of the medicines leach into the environment. New research holds troublesome insights with regard to the scope of this problem.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of Notre Dame focused on an enzyme in gram-negative bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a pathogen that causes pneumonia and sepsis.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago and Nosopharm report on the discovery of a new class of antibiotics that may be effective at treating drug-resistant infections.

• share
• favorite_border

UNC School of Medicine researchers have identified mutations to the bacterium Neisseria gonnorrhoeae that enable resistance to ceftriaxone that could lead to the global spread of ceftriaxone-resistant “superbug” strains.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Cancer therapies that target a specific protein have improved outcomes for patients. However, many patients eventually develop resistance to these targeted therapies and their cancer comes back. It is believed that differences among tumor cells, or heterogeneity, may contribute to this drug resistance. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers are using a unique approach by combining typical cell culture studies with mathematical modeling to determine how heterogeneity within a tumor and the surrounding tumor environment affect responses to targeted drug therapies.

• share
• favorite_border

Vincenzo Venditti, an assistant professor of chemistry at Iowa State University, is searching for a new kind of antibiotic in the fight against antimicrobial-resistant superbugs.

• share
• favorite_border

Exposing infants to antacids or antibiotics in their first six months of life could increase their risk of developing allergies in childhood.

• share
• favorite_border

• Scientists untangle the structure of a recently discovered bacterial wall-building protein, found in nearly all bacteria • The discovery unveils potential weak spots in the protein’s molecular make-up • Findings can pave the way to next-generation broad-spectrum drugs that disrupt the protein’s function and disarm harmful bacteria

• share
• favorite_border

Imagine a small paper device that can rapidly reveal from a drop of blood whether an infection is bacterial or viral. The device could help reduce the overuse of antibiotics – which kill bacteria, not viruses. Misuse of antibiotics has led to antimicrobial resistance, a growing global public health issue.

• share
• favorite_border

Doctors recommend against taking antibiotics for viral infections because they don't work – antibiotics don't kill viruses – and do promote antibiotic resistance. A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests another reason to avoid the pills: Taking antibiotics increases susceptibility to subsequent viral infection, at least in mice.

• share
• favorite_border

Despite public health campaigns aimed at reducing unnecessary prescriptions for antibiotics, the drugs continue to be prescribed at startlingly high rates in outpatient settings such as clinics and physician offices, according to a new study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The researchers analyzed de-identified data from Express Scripts Holding Co., which manages drug benefits for employers, and found that 98 million outpatient antibiotic prescriptions were filled by 39 million people during a three-year period from 2013 to 2015. Moreover, the researchers found no decline in the overall antibiotic prescription rate during that time.

• share
• favorite_border

Neurons that carry nerve signals to and from the lungs suppress immune response during fatal lung infections with the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. Animal experiments show that disabling these neurons can boost immune response and promote bacterial clearance to aid recovery. Targeting neuro-immune signaling in the lungs can pave the way to nonantibiotic therapies for bacterial pneumonia.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at The University of Alabama hope to better understand how bacteria and viruses battle each other and, in the process, devise new strategies to combat antibiotic-resistant infections.

• share
• favorite_border

Treating obese mice with catestatin (CST), a peptide naturally occurring in the body, showed significant improvement in glucose and insulin tolerance and reduced body weight, report University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers.

• share
• favorite_border

A study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry is the first to describe a signaling pathway that affects communication — a process called quorum sensing — between Streptococcus bacteria cells.

• share
• favorite_border

A study of 30,000 children with earaches, strep throat and other common infections found that narrow-spectrum antibiotics had fewer adverse effects than broad-spectrum antibiotics. A more selective approach is better, said researchers.

• share
• favorite_border

In a paper published in Nature Microbiology on Jan. 22, a team of American and Russian computer scientists described a new algorithm that identified an order of magnitude, or roughly 10 times more, naturally occurring antibiotics than all previous studies.

• share
• favorite_border

A research team at the Duke Cancer Institute has found a new way to keep the immune system engaged, and is planning to test the approach in a phase 1 clinical trial.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of researchers from Queen’s University Belfast, led by Professor Ryan Donnelly, Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology are developing a new type of skin patch (microarray patch) that administers drugs directly into the bloodstream through thousands of individual “microneedles” which are being tested as a possible answer to the antibiotic resistance crisis.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of Georgia have now shown that the enzyme that makes the El Tor family of V. cholerae resistant to those antibiotics has a different mechanism of action from any comparable proteins observed in bacteria so far. Understanding that mechanism better equips researchers to overcome the challenge it presents in a world with increasing antibiotic resistance. The results of this research are published in the Dec. 22, 2017 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

• share
• favorite_border

Antibiotics could become nearly useless by mid-century against intense infections due to bacteria evolving antibiotic resistance. And alternatives haven't been able to replace them. It's time for a rethink: Try reducing antibiotic use for small infections and find alternate treatments for them. Save antibiotics for the big infections.

• share
• favorite_border

This UNC research shows how understanding the precise mix of bacteria and their interactions could become a standard part of clinical practice in treating bacterial infections, especially the more dangerous infections involving antibiotic resistance.

• share
• favorite_border

New supercomputer simulations have revealed the role of transport proteins called efflux pumps in creating drug-resistance in bacteria, research that could lead to improving the drugs’ effectiveness against life-threatening diseases and restoring the efficacy of defunct antibiotics.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at UdeM's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine design better molecules that make it harder for plasmids to move between bacteria.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast together with the University of Vienna have discovered that treatment for the antibiotic resistant bacteria Klebsiella pneumoniae could lie within our bodies’ natural defences.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the University of Birmingham have identified new mechanisms used by bacteria to resist infection-fighting antibiotics.

• share
• favorite_border

One of the UK’s leading microbiologists is concerned that confusing language and a lack of specific objectives are hampering the global fight against antibiotic-resistant infections.

• share
• favorite_border

Dr. Jung-Mo Ahn, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at The University of Texas at Dallas, has designed a small molecule that could help breast cancer patients for whom current treatments no longer work.

• share
• favorite_border

Rural counties continue to rank lowest among counties across the U.S., in terms of health outcomes. A group of national organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National 4-H Council are leading the way to close the rural health gap.

• share
• favorite_border

UCSF Benioff's Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) researcher Dr. Deborah Dean is the recipient of a new award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that will support the development and evaluation of new diagnostics tools that can determine the antibiotics to which a patient’s strain of gonorrhea is susceptible. Dean is among the 25 investigators that the CDC awarded more than $9 million in total to pilot innovative solutions and explore knowledge gaps about antibiotic resistance related to the human microbiome, healthcare settings, and surface water and soil.

• share
• favorite_border

Rutgers University–New Brunswick and other institutions have discovered a “molecular pencil sharpener” that chews away its outer coating to release a powerful antibiotic. Their discovery opens the door to finding new antibacterial agents and drugs to fight toxins.

• share
• favorite_border

UAB will lead a infectious disease sentinel surveillance network, funded by the CDC, for Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections at eight medical centers across the United States.

• share
• favorite_border

October Tips Include: A noninvasive eye scan for detecting Alzheimer’s disease; a first-of-its-kind heart device for babies born with a congenital heart defect; research that could lead to a vaccine for antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” and heart research suggesting that stem cells from young hearts could rejuvenate older ones. To pursue any of these story ideas, please contact the contact listed for each.

• share
• favorite_border

At first glance, the yeast Candida krusei seems as innocuous as microbes come: it’s used for fermenting cocoa beans and gives chocolate its pleasant aroma. But it’s increasingly being found as a pathogen in immunocompromised patients—and C. krusei infections aren’t always easy to cure.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at UC San Diego have developed a genome-scale model that can accurately predict how E. coli bacteria respond to temperature changes and genetic mutations. The work sheds light on how cells adapt under environmental stress and has applications in precision medicine, where adaptive cell modeling could provide patient-specific treatments for bacterial infections.

• share
• favorite_border

In the second of two high-profile articles published in recent weeks, SLU scientist Mee-Ngan F. Yap, Ph.D, continues to uncover the secrets of how ribosomes hibernate under stressful conditions.

• share
• favorite_border

Light-activated nanoparticles, also known as quantum dots, can provide a crucial boost in effectiveness for antibiotic treatments used to combat drug-resistant superbugs such as E. coli and Salmonella, new University of Colorado Boulder research shows.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University studying combinations of drugs against HIV have discovered why certain drugs sometimes act synergistically but sometimes do not.

• share
• favorite_border

Texas Biomedical Research Institute researchers, Dr. Tim Anderson and Dr. Ian Cheeseman, have partnered with researchers at the University of Notre Dame and the Center for Infectious Disease Research in Seattle to pursue studies in drug resistant malaria.

• share
• favorite_border

What’s worse than getting exposed to a kind of bacteria that modern antibiotics can’t kill? Getting exposed to more than one – because they may work together to cause an infection, new research suggests. It’s time to think about such bacteria as members of an antibiotic-resistant ecosystem in healthcare environments – not as single species.

• share
• favorite_border

An antimicrobial compound made by honeybees could become the basis for new antibiotics, according to new research at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

• share
• favorite_border

University at Buffalo researchers have assembled a team of three antibiotics that, together, are capable of eradicating E. coli carrying mcr-1 and ndm-5 — genes that make the bacterium immune to last-resort antibiotics.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have discovered new methods that could improve treatment for infectious diseases by enabling earlier detection of influenza outbreaks and curtailing inappropriate antibiotic usage. The findings were presented today at the 69th AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo in San Diego.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have shown that a new genetic test could potentially help stem the tide of the opioid epidemic by predicting which patients are at risk of abusing prescription opioids. These findings were presented for the first time at the 69th AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo in San Diego.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study shows that a change in policy placing more restrictions on all hydrocodone-containing drugs has successfully decreased the use of certain opioids such as Vicodin. This research and a second study illuminating regional drug use trends in Canada were announced today at the 69th AACC Annual Scientific Meeting in San Diego, and could help to guide future strategies for combatting addiction.