Antibiotic News and Research

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Antibiotics are drugs used to treat infections caused by bacteria and other microorganisms.

Chlamydia has evolved more actively than previously thought

In a study released today in Nature Genetics, researchers have found that Chlamydia has evolved more actively than was previously thought. Using whole genome sequencing the researchers show that the exchange of DNA between different strains of Chlamydia to form new strains is much more common than expected.

12 Mar 2012

ITQB, REQUIMTE convert solid antibiotic ampicilin into an ionic liquid form

In a daring move into the biomedical arena, ITQB chemists from the Molecular Thermodynamics Lab and collaborators from REQUIMTE have managed to convert the solid antibiotic ampicilin into an ionic liquid form, a method that may be extended to other pharmaceutical compounds with benefits for their administration. The work is now published in Medicinal Chemistry Communications.

12 Mar 2012

Hospitals with infection control certification may have lower MRSA BSI rates

Hospitals whose infection prevention and control programs are led by a director who is board certified in infection prevention and control have significantly lower rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream infections (BSI) than those that are not led by a certified professional, according to a new study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the official publication of APIC - the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.

12 Mar 2012

New Burn Medical Education app for physicians, students

A newly released mobile app designed to educate medical students, physicians and health care workers around the globe on how to care for burn victims is one of a fast-growing number of medical apps being developed at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

12 Mar 2012

New drug approval pathway to encourage development of critically needed, lifesaving antibiotics

Congress will consider a new drug approval pathway to encourage development of critically needed, lifesaving antibiotics as part of a strategy to address the public health crisis of antibiotic resistance. The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) proposed the new pathway, the "Special Population Limited Medical Use (SPLMU)" mechanism, to provide an important new approval option for companies interested in developing drugs to treat patients with serious infections where few or no treatment options exist.

10 Mar 2012

Lilly, Boehringer Ingelheim announce availability of Jentadueto tablets

Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Eli Lilly and Company today announced Jentadueto (linagliptin/metformin hydrochloride) tablets are now available by prescription in many leading chain and independent pharmacies across the U.S.

8 Mar 2012

State news: Ore. Gov. signs reform bill; Texas seeks early release of sick inmates

If Oregon's Democratic governor is right, the bill he signed Friday will improve health care and reduce costs so significantly that it could help fix the federal budget. The Obama administration is watching with keen interest -; and so are critics who say Gov. John Kitzhaber's plan is just another example of government overreach.

6 Mar 2012

Abbott, GenLab collaborate to develop new assay for PLEX-ID automated microbial identification system

Abbott announced today it will collaborate with Genetics Laboratory, Inc. on the development of a molecular diagnostic test that will be designed to rapidly detect microorganisms that cause orthopedic infections.

5 Mar 2012

X-rays help decipher how natural antibiotics defy a longstanding set of chemical rules

Researchers working at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have used powerful X-rays to help decipher how certain natural antibiotics defy a longstanding set of chemical rules - a mechanism that has baffled organic chemists for decades.

4 Mar 2012

Roundup: Iowa lawmaker urges waiting on exchange bill until court rules; Calif. group finds way to recycle medicine

Democrats and Republicans disagree about whether the Legislature needs to approve a health insurance exchange this spring. At a Statehouse forum on the issue Thursday, state Sen. Brad Zaun noted that the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule this summer on whether major portions of the health reform law are constitutional. Zaun, an Urbandale Republican who opposes the overall law, said it makes sense to wait until after that decision before deciding whether to move ahead with the exchange.

3 Mar 2012

EC grants marketing authorization for Baxter's VEPACEL to treat influenza A

Baxter International Inc. announced today that the European Commission (EC) has granted marketing authorization for VEPACEL in all European Union (EU) Member States, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

From Baxter International Inc. 2 Mar 2012

Scientists determine chemical features of DHPS enzyme's active site

More than 70 years after the first sulfa drugs helped to revolutionize medical care and save millions of lives, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have determined at an atomic level the mechanism these medications use to kill bacteria. The discovery provides the basis for a new generation of antibiotics that would likely be harder for bacteria to resist and cause fewer side effects.

2 Mar 2012

Genome sequencing helps characterize S. aureus ST398-NM strain

Using genome sequencing and household surveillance, National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists and their colleagues from Columbia University Medical Center and St. George's University of London have pieced together how a newly emerging type of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria has adapted to transmit more easily among humans.

29 Feb 2012

BioConnections, Yissum to commercialize kits that detect MDR and XDR infections

Yissum, the research and development company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, had signed a licensing agreement with BioConnections, a UK based microbiology company, for the commercialization of kits that enables immediate detection of all multidrug resistant (MDR) and of any extremely drug resistant (XDR) infections.

27 Feb 2012

Forest Laboratories' Colobreathe dry powder inhaler receives EMA approval

Forest Laboratories, Inc., an international pharmaceutical manufacturer and marketer, today announced that it has been granted European Medicines Agency (EMA) approval to market Colobreathe dry powder colistimethate sodium for inhalation for treating cystic fibrosis patients aged 6 years and older with chronic lung infection caused by P. aeruginosa.

24 Feb 2012

Unfolded end of Colicin N protein can kill antibiotic-resistant microbes

When bacteria wage a turf war, some of the combatants have an extra weapon. Certain strains of the bacteria E. coli produce proteins that kill competing E. coli and other like microbes, and researchers from Newcastle University in England have recently discovered something surprising about one of these lethal proteins: even after the toxic folded portion of the protein is removed, the unfolded end is still deadly.

24 Feb 2012

MRSA strain in food animals concerns experts

The strain of staph, known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA CC398, most often infects farm workers who come in contact with infected pigs, turkeys, or cows. Now the strain of bacteria has been found in about half of meat samples taken throughout the country. The researchers say that the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in livestock used for food is to blame for the infection's drug resistance.

23 Feb 2012

Study: MRSA jumps from food animals to humans

A strain of the potentially deadly antibiotic-resistant bacterium known as MRSA has jumped from food animals to humans, according to a new study involving two Northern Arizona University researchers.

22 Feb 2012

Promising antibiotic alternative to fight bacteria that causes strep throat

Researchers have discovered a promising alternative to common antibiotics used to fight the bacteria that causes strep throat. In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists discussed how their discovery could fight the infection with a reduced risk of antibiotic resistance.

22 Feb 2012

Researchers discover identical antibiotic resistant genes in soil bacteria and in pathogens from clinics

Disease-causing bacteria's efforts to resist antibiotics may get help from their distant bacterial relatives that live in the soil, new research at Washington University School of Medicine suggests.

21 Feb 2012