Antibiotic News and Research

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

Anti-bacterial fabrics show promise against superbugs

Antibiotics have proven to be a valuable weapon in the fight against infectious bacteria. However, due to the excess use of antibiotics in conventional treatments, overtime antibiotics have become less effective.

1 Mar 2016

New infection-fighting bandages for serious burn victims

Serious burn victims are immunocompromised and may be missing skin on parts of their body, and this makes them highly vulnerable to bacteria. Thanks to progress in intensive care, they are decreasingly likely to die from burn trauma. Death is more commonly the result of infections that can occur several months after being hospitalized. The bandages used to treat burns actually represent a real breeding ground for microbes.

26 Feb 2016

Study highlights presence of antibiotic stewardship practices in most VA-affiliated facilities

New research highlights the robust presence of antibiotic stewardship practices in most Veterans Administration-affiliated facilities, manifested in both formal and informal policies. The study was published online today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

24 Feb 2016

PolyPid closes $22 million private equity financing

PolyPid Ltd., an emerging clinical-stage specialty pharmaceutical company, focused primarily on the development of post-surgical anti-infection pipeline, announced today that it closed a $22 million private equity financing.

24 Feb 2016

UEA research paves way for new wave of drugs to kill superbugs

Scientists at the University of East Anglia are getting closer to solving the problem of antibiotic resistance.

24 Feb 2016

Giving feedbacks to GPs could cut unnecessary prescriptions of antibiotics

Sending general practitioners (GPs) in England a letter giving feedback on their antibiotic prescribing habits could cut unnecessary prescriptions of antibiotics, according to the first nationwide randomised trial of its kind involving over 1500 GP practices, published in The Lancet.

23 Feb 2016

New findings on gut microbiota to be discussed at 2016 Gut Microbiota for Health World Summit

Novel approaches for manipulating the gut microbiota through diet, pre- and probiotics, targeted antibiotic therapy and fecal microbiota transplantation for health maintenance and treatment are under investigation or already in use.

22 Feb 2016

New project aims to develop low-cost device that can detect drug allergies within 30 minutes

The Universitat Politècnica de València (Polytechnic University of Valencia, UPV) is at the helm of a new Horizon2020 research project to develop a low-cost biophotonic device that can detect drug allergies within 30 minutes. Going by the acronym "Cobiophad", short for Compact Biophotonic Platform for Drug Allergy Diagnosis, it also receives funding from the European Technology Platform Photonics 21.

19 Feb 2016

Antibiotics may be linked to delirium and other brain problems

Antibiotics may be linked to a serious disruption in brain function, called delirium, and other brain problems, more than previously thought, according to a "Views and Reviews" article published in the February 17, 2016, online issue of Neurology, a medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

18 Feb 2016

Tackling antibiotic resistance from a new perspective

Tackling antibiotic resistance on only one front is a waste of time because resistant genes are freely crossing environmental, agricultural and clinical boundaries, new research has shown.

17 Feb 2016

Aytu BioScience announces business strategy update and Q2 financial results

Aytu BioScience, Inc., a specialty healthcare company focused on developing treatments for urological and related conditions, provided today an overview of its business and growth strategy, as well as its financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2015.

17 Feb 2016

New UNC School of Medicine study shows how some bacteria can spread throughout the body

Bacteria have evolved thousands of clever tactics for invading our bodies while evading our natural defenses. Now, UNC School of Medicine scientists studying one of the world's most virulent pathogens and a separate very common bacterium have discovered a new way that some bacteria can spread rapidly throughout the body - by hitchhiking on our own immune cells.

16 Feb 2016

Anti-biofilm compounds show promise against drug-resistant bacteria associated with hospital-acquired infections

Researchers at the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute and School of Public Health have discovered a new class of anti-biofilm compounds derived from marine microorganisms that show promise against a drug-resistant bacterium commonly associated with hospital-acquired infections.

16 Feb 2016

Nine researchers win EPSRC Healthcare Technologies Challenge Awards

Nine researchers, working on innovative projects that promise to improve healthcare diagnosis and treatment, across a wide spread of issues, were today announced as the first recipients of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's (EPSRC) Healthcare Technologies Challenge Awards.

15 Feb 2016

Discovery opens door to preventing diet-induced heart disease

Four years ago, Stanley Hazen, MD, PhD, Chair of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and colleagues made a landmark discovery linking intestinal bacteria to heart disease. His team found that when our digestive systems digest the nutrients carnitine and choline (abundant in red meat and eggs, respectively), a bacterial waste product called TMAO is formed. They showed that high levels of TMAO are associated with higher rates of heart attack, stroke and cardiac death.

14 Feb 2016

Distinctive gene 'signature' may lead to new way to diagnose Lyme disease

Researchers at UC San Francisco and Johns Hopkins may have found a new way to diagnose Lyme disease, based on a distinctive gene "signature" they discovered in white blood cells of patients infected with the tick-borne bacteria.

12 Feb 2016

Five researchers named winners of 2016 Elsevier Foundation Awards

Five researchers have been named winners of the 2016 Elsevier Foundation Awards for Early Career Women Scientists in the Developing World, in recognition of research that has strong potential health and economic benefits.

10 Feb 2016

Oral therapeutic drug shows promise against recurrent C. difficile infection

Results from a Phase 1b/2 trial suggest that an investigational microbiome-based, oral therapeutic drug is effective for the treatment of recurrent C. difficile infection. In a paper published online in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, a multi-institutional research team reports that treatment with the preparation, containing the spores of approximately 50 species of beneficial bacteria, successfully prevented recurrence of C. difficile infection (CDI) in patients with a history of multiple recurrent disease.

10 Feb 2016

FDA requests $5.1 billion budget for FY 2017 to protect and promote public health

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is requesting a total budget of $5.1 billion to protect and promote the public health as part of the President's fiscal year (FY) 2017 budget – an eight percent increase over the enacted budget for FY 2016.

10 Feb 2016

Behavioral interventions motivate doctors to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions

Behavioral interventions that appealed to doctors' competitive spirits and desire to strengthen their reputations motivated them to significantly reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions, a new study shows.

10 Feb 2016