Antibiotics in Biological News

Test helps in fight against lung infections and for treating other life-threatening infections

... doctors to more accurately identify the right antibiotics required to treat serious, chronic infections ... of chronic infections required trying different antibiotics until one or several together eliminated or ... infections can be 1000 times more resistant to antibiotics than conventional infections. Now, for the ...

Antibiotics take toll on beneficial microbes in gut

... normally floats in our intestinal tracts. antibiotics at least temporarily disturb the normal balance. But it's unclear which antibiotics are the most disruptive, and if the full array of ... for the first time that two different types of antibiotics can cause moderate to wide-ranging changes in the ...

Bacteria create aquatic superbugs in waste treatment plants

... was significantly more likely to resist multiple antibiotics than bacteria in water samples upstream. Some strains resisted as many as seven of eight antibiotics tested. The bacteria in samples taken 100 yards ... bacteria upstream. "Twenty or 30 years ago, antibiotics would have killed most of these strains, no ...

Mass Biologic Labs/UMass Med School and Medarex license C. difficile monoclonal antibody to Merck

... acute episode of CDI receiving standard of care antibiotics (metronidazole or vancomycin) were randomized to ... disease most often develops in the presence of antibiotics administered for other infections, in which the ... disease requires administration of additional antibiotics to kill the C. difficile bacteria, but because ...

Nanoemulsion potent against superbugs that kill cystic fibrosis patients

... rather than taking them systemically. Localizing antibiotics to the lungs allows for higher concentrations, ... including one-third that are resistant to many antibiotics and 13 percent that resist all antibiotics. ... closely simulate conditions in a patient's body. antibiotics often can't penetrate biofilms and sputum unless ...

Developer of advanced computing memory, father of biochemical engineering, and innovative engineering educators win highest engineering honors of 2009

... reactors for large-scale, low-cost production of antibiotics and other drugs." TOM BYERS and TINA SEELIG ... in ushering in the global availability of antibiotics such as penicillin. His breakthroughs in ... proper amount of oxygen needed for the growth of antibiotics known as "aerobic fermentation" allowed the ...

Fewer deaths with preventive antibiotic use

... Administering antibiotics as a preventive measure to patients in intensive ... given the oral paste four times daily, received antibiotics through a gastric tube in the intestinal tract ... fewer people had died in the groups that received antibiotics than in the control group. Preventive use ...

Biomedical engineers' detective work reveals antibiotic mechanism

... engineers to uncover exactly how certain antibiotics kill bacteria. The findings could help rejuvenate the efficacy of older antibiotics and reveal new antibiotic targets within ... research speaks to new insights into how current antibiotics work and how those insights can point toward ...

Positive results in Phase 2 trial of treatment of C-difficile-associated diarrhea

... symptomatic with CDAD receiving standard of care antibiotics (metronidazole or vancomycin) were randomized to ... disease is believed to develop in the presence of antibiotics administered for other infections, in which the ... disease requires administration of additional antibiotics to kill the C. difficile bacteria, but because ...

New antibiotic candidates from Braunschweig

... target is different from the target of known antibiotics such as rifamycin, a standard medication to ... interesting candidates for a development as antibiotics especially in view of the fact that the ... results in the distinguished journal "Cell". antibiotics are an essential tool of medicine. We owe ...

Nanotechnology boosts war on superbugs

... the workings of vancomycin, one of the few antibiotics that can be used to combat increasingly resistant ... probes capable of providing new insight into how antibiotics work, paving the way for the development of more ... of bacteria. The 'superbugs' are resistant to antibiotics because of a simple mutation which deletes a ...

New way to make malaria medicine also first step in finding new antibiotics

... can least afford expensive medicines, and many antibiotics are expensive," Metcalf said. Efforts are ... rounds out the research team. The need for new antibiotics is at an all-time high because multi-drug ... example, tuberculosis has become so resistant to antibiotics that soon "they'll send you to Arizona to drier ...

American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac -- Sept. 3, 2008

... #4 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Toward improved antibiotics using proteins from marine diatoms ... enormous potential of an emerging new group of antibiotics identical to certain germ-fighting proteins found ... difficulty producing effective AMPs because the antibiotics are fragile and easily destroyed in the body. An ...

Milk may help bacteria survive against low levels of antibiotics

... bacteria like Staphylococcus from being killed by antibiotics used to treat animals, scientists heard today ... called biofilms that protect them against antibiotics and the body's natural defences. Now scientists ... protect bacteria against low concentrations of antibiotics in the presence of milk, three of the ...

Researchers analyze how new anti-MRSA abtibiotics function

... provides important insights into promising new antibiotics aimed at combating MRSA. Methicillin-resistant ... team investigated two new anti-MRSA β-Lactam antibiotics from the pharmaceutical company Cerexa Inc., ... these organisms, it is not surprising that many antibiotics work by either impairing biosynthesis of the cell ...

Early treatment of stomach infection may prevent cancer

... gastric cancer to the greatest extent when antibiotics were given at an early point of infection, but ... but one previous study showed that giving antibiotics before premalignant lesions develop was ... Researchers then treated the mice with antibiotics and looked for cellular changes. They found that, ...

UIC scientists discover how some bacteria survive antibiotics

... Molecular Cell, could lead to more effective antibiotics to treat a variety of infections. "When patients are treated with antibiotics some pathogenic microbes can turn on the genes ... genes." Erythromycin and newer macrolide antibiotics azithromycin and clarithromycin are often used to ...

Green tea helps beat superbugs

... drinking green tea helps the action of important antibiotics in their fight against resistant superbugs, ... We tested green tea in combination with antibiotics against 28 disease causing micro-organisms ... cephalosporin antibiotics. These are important antibiotics that new drug resistant strains of bacteria have ...

Scientists successfully treat new mouse model of inflammatory bowel disease

... follow up both in the clinic and the lab. "The antibiotics we gave the mice were used individually in ... and immunology and of developmental biology. "The antibiotics probably won't be a cure by themselves, but they ... treated the mice at three weeks with the antibiotics ciprofloxacin and metronidazole, colon ...

Unique fungal collection could hold key to future antibiotics

... compounds to market. Since their discovery, antibiotics and other antimicrobial agents have saved ... have developed resistance to existing antibiotics making infections difficult, if not impossible, ... A major focus will be the search for new antibiotics and nutraceuticals, for which there is now ...

High degree of resistance to antibiotics in Arctic birds

... These findings indicate that resistance to antibiotics has spread into nature, which is an alarming ... people. This further confirms that resistance to antibiotics has become a global phenomenon and that virtually ... Asia, for example, where there is a great deal of antibiotics pressure and carried with them the resistant ...

Decoy makes sitting duck of superbugs

... technology can give fresh patent life to existing antibiotics - when combined with a decoy they can be patented ... This comes at a time when the number of new antibiotics receiving approval has dramatically declined. ... can also be used to improve the production of antibiotics by bacteria and to produce enzymes and other ...

Manure management reduces levels of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes

... concern. Researchers around the globe have found antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals to be present in ... out if animal waste contributes to the spread of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes (ARG), and if ... the effects of manure management on the levels of antibiotics and ARG in manures. The study was conducted at ...

Microbial biofilms evoke Jekyll & Hyde effects

... colonies called biofilms, where there can resist antibiotics and cause more problems for the immune system. ... resisting antibiotics. Indeed resistance against antibiotics is itself one of the biggest problems of all ... become inflamed. As the biofilms are resistant to antibiotics and the immune systems white blood cells, very ...

Boston University biomedical engineers find chink in bacteria's armor

... Currently, three classes of bactericidal antibiotics are used to target different bacterial functions: ... free radical overload appears to help current antibiotics do their job, but is not always enough to kill ... the value of taking a network biology approach to antibiotics and provides a framework for creating new classes ...

Pinhead-size worms + robot = new antibiotics

... drugs that are toxic, or that fight bacteria in the same ways as existing antibiotics that are loosing effectiveness against drug-resistant bacteria. A much better test would involve screening of potential new antibiotics in living animals infected with bacteria to see the effects on the entire ...

C. difficile spores spread superbug

... weeks after cessation of the treatment. But after long term exposure to antibiotics some of the mice remained in their 'supershedder' state for weeks or even ... contamination is a potential infection threat. The administration of antibiotics has been a known risk factor in the development of C. difficile ...

Data published in the New England Journal of Medicine support use of raxibacumab (ABthrax) for the treatment of inhalation anthrax

... Raxibacumab represents a new way to address the anthrax threat. While antibiotics can kill the anthrax bacteria, they are not effective against the deadly ... toxins already are circulating in their blood, and it may be too late for antibiotics alone to be effective. "We are very proud that the importance of these ...

Newly discovered reactions from an old drug may lead to new antibiotics

... found at health food stores could be the key to developing a new line of antibiotics for bacteria that commonly cause diarrhea, tooth decay and, in some severe ... approach, and it could potentially be a source for new narrow spectrum antibiotics that block bacteria that require selenium to grow." The key discovery ...

Glutamine supplements show promise in treating stomach ulcers

... as Helicobacter pylori were responsible for stomach ulcers. Since then, antibiotics have become the primary therapy used to combat the H. pylori infection, ... of Nutrition ., the findings offer the possibility of an alternative to antibiotics for the treatment of stomach ulcers. "Our findings suggest that extra ...

Bacteria play role in preventing spread of malaria

... Institute found that removing these bacteria, or microbial flora, with antibiotics made the mosquitoes more susceptible to Plasmodium infection because of ... As part of the study, the Johns Hopkins researcher treated mosquitoes with antibiotics to kill the gut bacteria. Treated mosquitoes were more susceptible to ...

Re-awakening old genes to help in the fight against HIV

... appear to prevent the transmission of HIV. He applied aminoglycoside antibiotics to vaginal tissues and cervical cells in his lab and found the antibiotic ... on their own. He said there is a good possibility the aminoglycoside antibiotics will be used in a cream or gel format that could someday be a simple way ...

Sugar on bacteria surface serves as base for a web of resistance

... we could free up these organisms and they'd be much more readily killed by antibiotics or by the host's defense," said Daniel Wozniak, professor of internal ... at Ohio State University and senior author of the study. "Many antibiotics target actively growing cells, but biofilms go into a dormant mode of ...

Genetic switch potential key to new class of antibiotics

... known to cause major human infections may provide a new generation of antibiotics at a time when bacteria have become frighteningly capable of resisting ... using divergent preQ1 riboswitch aptamers. The design of a new class of antibiotics will be based on the specific base pairs that occur in each riboswitch ...

Gutsy germs succumb to baby broccoli

... of stomach cancer in some countries, that strains resistant to standard antibiotics are prevalent, and that multiple courses of standard antibiotics do not always eliminate the infection. Working in Japan where there is ...

Pitt-led researchers create quick, simple fluorescent detector for TB

... Hatfull said. Hatfull and his colleagues treated M. tuberculosis with antibiotics at the same time the bacteriophages were introduced; the TB strains that were sensitive to antibiotics died, but the drug-resistant cells survived and continued to glow. The ...

Einstein and Pitt researchers develop new TB test that will dramatically cut diagnosis time

... which normally takes months. Researchers treated M. tuberculosis with antibiotics at the same time the bacteriophages were introduced; the TB strains that were sensitive to antibiotics died, but the drug-resistant cells survived and continued to glow. ...

Two UT Southwestern researchers awarded Sloan fellowships

... naturally occurring molecules from algae and soil bacteria to search for antibiotics and anti-cancer agents. "It's been known for a long time that natural sources represent a wonderful supply of antibiotics and other drugs," he said. "And bacteria generate a great variety of ...

Duke software dramatically speeds enzyme design

... team has brought powerful software to the never-ending arms race between antibiotics and germs. Working together, computer scientists and biochemists have ... by a grant from the National Institutes of Health. The search for new antibiotics usually begins by directly modifying existing compounds. But his group ...

Dog owners more likely to share germs with pets by not washing hands than by sleeping with dog

... strains. She also found that the E. coli had more resistance to common antibiotics than expected, although the owners had more multiple-drug resistant ... spread them to their dogs," Stenske said. "What we learn from this is that antibiotics really do affect the bacteria within our gastrointestinal tract, and we ...