Bacteria

News • Microtechnologies and automated systems

How emerging tech can help identify bacteria and antibiotic susceptibility

An SLAS Technology review article by Yiyan Li, Xing Yang and Weian Zhao of University of California, Irvine highlights and synthesizes representative emerging micro- and nanotechnologies, as well as automated systems for bacterial identification (ID) and antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST), including both phenotypic and molecular methods and those at the point-of-care (POC) setting. Also…

News • Antibiotic resistance

A strain of multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli is on the rise

Antibiotic resistant bacteria lead to infections that are difficult to treat, particularly in hospitals. Multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli bacteria which have developed special enzymes that render antibiotics ineffective frequently cause such infections. DZIF scientists from Gießen University examined these bacteria more precisely and discovered a strain of Escherichia coli that has been…

News • Symbiotic cohabitation

Nerves control the body’s bacterial community

CAU research team proves, for the first time, that there is close cooperation between the nervous system and the microbial population of the body.

News • Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Developing a new active ingredient against chronic infections

Chronic lung infections caused by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa require complex and, in most cases, long-term treatment with antibiotics—new medication is badly needed.

News • Infections

Killing bacteria by hacking plastics with silver and electricity

Researchers at the Swedish Medical Nanoscience Center at Karolinska Institutet have developed an innovative way of hacking conducting plastics so as to prevent bacterial growth.

Article • Hygiene guidelines

Hand washing: in hot or cold water?

‘The literature on hand washing, while extensive, often contains conflicting data, and key variables are only superficially studied, or not studied at all. Some hand washing recommendations are made without scientific support, and agreement between recommendations is limited,’ explained Professor Donald W Schaffner at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA, who has led a team of researchers to…

Article • Antibiotic resistance

Killer bugs put on the critical list

While new agents to fight virulent pathogens are in the pipeline, a new study pinpoints where a recent addition is already being applied in the clinic.

News • Before the Age of Dinosaurs

Antibiotic-resistant microbes date back to 450 MYA

Survival of mass extinctions helps to explain near indestructible properties of hospital superbugs.

News • Negative test

Symptoms of cystitis caused by bacterial infection?

The majority of women suffering with pain when urinating, or needing to urinate often or urgently probably do have a bacterial infection, even when nothing is detected by standard urine testing.

News • Laboratory

Partnership for molecular diagnostic test

SpeeDx Pty. Ltd., a developer of innovative molecular diagnostic solutions, has signed an agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science. The announcement was made at the 27th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease (ECCMID) in Vienna to submit its ResistancePlus MG Test for the detection of Mycoplasma genitalium to the US Food & Drug…

News • Bacteria’s DNA fingerprint

Does C. difficile spread around Europe via food distribution?

Foods should be investigated as a potential source of spread of Clostridium difficile, according to research presented at the 27th ECCMID [1].

Article • Antimicrobial resistance

Prudence is the cornerstone of prevention

Following a top level EU report showing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remains high, Professor Mike Catchpole, Chief Scientist at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), has warned that stricter use of antibiotics is critical.

News • Infections

Philips and Diagnostics Development win European Union ‘Horizon Prize – Better Use of Antibiotics’

Philips and Diagnostics Development, a P&M Venge company, evaluate the novel human neutrophil lipocalin (HNL) biomarker for the rapid detection of bacterial infection. Based on Philips’ Minicare I-20 handheld diagnostics platform, the Minicare HNL assay is recognized for its potential to provide physicians with 10-minute confirmation of bacterial infection, helping to ensure that…

Article • Infections

Seeking the role of messenger substances in infections

Using computer-based simulations and mouse experiments, researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig and at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (OVGU), have disentangled the effects of pro-inflammatory signalling molecules on the postinfluenza susceptibility to pneumococcal coinfection.

News • Infections

UV Light Can Aid Hospitals’ Fight to Wipe Out Drug-Resistant Superbugs

Adding UV light to standard cleaning cut transmission of 4 resistant bacteria by 30 percent

News • Blood poisoning

"Pulling" bacteria out of blood

Magnets instead of antibiotics could provide a possible new treatment method for blood infection. This involves the blood of patients being mixed with magnetic iron particles, which bind the bacteria to them after which they are removed from the blood using magnets. The initial laboratory tests at Empa in St. Gallen have been successful, and seem promising.

News • Whole genome sequencing

Genetic testing cannot determine antimicrobial susceptibility

Experts at the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST), who define the optimal drug concentrations to inhibit the growth of pathogens, have found that genetic methods cannot yet be used to test for susceptibility in a number of important bacterial species.

News • Sepsis

New technology could prevent a leading cause of death

What do Casey Kasem, Christopher Reeve and Muhammad Ali have in common? They all died of sepsis: a rapid, potentially deadly reaction that affects millions each year.

News • tumor-fighting

Swarms of magnetic bacteria could deliver drugs to tumors

Researchers funded in part by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) have recently shown that magnetic bacteria are a promising vehicle for more efficiently delivering tumor-fighting drugs.

News • Infection

Why does MRSA ‘superbug’ kill influenza patients?

Researchers have discovered that secondary infection with the Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacterium (or “superbug”) often kills influenza patients because the flu virus alters the antibacterial response of white blood cells, causing them to damage the patients’ lungs instead of destroying the bacterium. The study suggests that inhibiting this response may help treat…

News • Molecular troublemakers

How proteins prevent communication between bacteria

They may be slimy, but they are a perfect environment for microorganisms: biofilms. Protected against external influences, here bacteria can grow undisturbed, and trigger diseases. Scientists at Kiel University, in cooperation with colleagues at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) in Hamburg-Harburg, are researching how it can be possible to prevent the formation of biofilms from the…

News • Staphylococcus aureus

Women more likely to die within 30-days from bacterial blood infection

Clinicians around the world have long suspected that bacteraemia due to Staphylococcus aureus has a worse outcome in women compared to men, but direct evidence has been elusive. A study just published confirms that significantly more women than men diagnosed with Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia (SAB) – a blood infection of the common bacteria – die within 30 days.

News • Bacteria

New discovery could change ICU care

No one knows for sure how they got there. But the discovery that bacteria that normally live in the gut can be detected in the lungs of critically ill people and animals could mean a lot for intensive care patients.

Protein fragment could provide a defense when antibiotics fail

Bacterial infections that don't respond to antibiotics are of rising concern, as is sepsis - the immune system's last-ditch, failed attack on infection that ends up being lethal itself. Reporting online in "Nature", researchers at Boston Children's Hospital describe new potential avenues for controlling both sepsis and the runaway bacterial infections that provoke it.

Article • Infection control

Scientists gain ground against resistance

The mechanism by which drug-resistant bacteria maintain a defensive barrier has been identified by researchers at England’s University of East Anglia (UEA) and their findings could result in a new wave of drugs that can bring down those defensive walls rather than attack the bacteria – thus they may not develop drug-resistance at all.