Treating back-to-school ear infections without antibiotic resistance

“Back-to-school” season means buying pens and paper, figuring out the new bus route, and … earaches. Doctors typically treat these infections with antibiotics, but children don’t always complete the full course, accelerating resistance to these medications. Today, researchers report developing a single-use nanoscale system that’s unlikely to generate resistance. Using a compound similar to bleach in test animals, they show […]

New drug candidate fights off more than 300 drug-resistant bacteria

Urinary tract infections are common, yet are increasingly tough to treat because the bacteria that cause them are becoming resistant to many antibiotics. Now, in ACS Central Science, researchers report a new molecule that inhibits drug-resistant bacteria in lab experiments, as well as in mice with pneumonia and urinary tract infections. The researchers say that this compound, fabimycin, could one day […]

Bacteria in donor organs complicate immune response after transplantation

Organ transplant recipients take life-long immunosuppressive drugs to prevent their bodies from mounting an immune response against the donated organ, yet a substantial number of them still reject the organs. A new study by researchers from the University of Chicago shows that transplant recipients also mount an immune response against commensal bacteria in the organ graft, adding to the immune […]

New findings on bacteria that increase risk of pancreatic cancer

Bacteria from the digestive system seem to have the potential to cause damage to pancreatic cells, increasing the risk of malignant tumours. Now for the first time, live bacteria from cystic pancreatic lesions that are precursors to pancreatic cancer, have been analysed by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The study, which is published in Gut Microbes, can lead to prophylactic […]

Phages kill dystentery-causing bacteria and reduce virulence in surviving bacteria

Phages are viruses that infect bacteria and can also be used to treat human infections. However, as with antibiotics, bacteria can readily evolve resistance to phage attack, highlighting a key limitation to the use of phages as therapeutics. Now, researchers from Yale University have shown that the naturally occurring phage A1-1 kills Shigella flexneri, a major cause of dysentery in sub-Saharan […]

Our genes shape our gut bacteria, new research shows

Our gut microbiome — the ever-changing “rainforest” of bacteria living in our intestines — is primarily affected by our lifestyle, including what we eat or the medications we take, most studies show. But a University of Notre Dame study has found a much greater genetic component at play than was once known. In the study, published recently in Science, researchers discovered […]

Public health risk from multidrug-resistant bacteria in dog food

European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Research presented by Dr Ana R. Freitas, and colleagues from UCIBIO, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, Portugal, showed that dog food from supermarkets and pet shops was a major source of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, making it an international public health risk. With some of the multidrug-resistant bacteria in raw dog food identical […]

New molecule found in chestnut leaves disarms dangerous staph bacteria

Scientists isolated a molecule, extracted from the leaves of the European chestnut tree, with the power to neutralize dangerous, drug-resistant staph bacteria. Frontiers in Pharmacology published the finding, led by scientists at Emory University. The researchers dubbed the molecule Castaneroxy A, after the genus of the European chestnut, Castanea. The use of chestnut leaves in traditional folk remedies in rural Italy inspired […]