Antibiotic News and Research

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

Researchers track re-emergence of scarlet fever-causing bacteria

An international study led by University of Queensland researchers has tracked the re-emergence of a childhood disease which had largely disappeared over the past 100 years.

4 Nov 2015

Microbiome researcher Martin J. Blaser earns GUMC's Cura Personalis Award

Georgetown University Medical Center will bestow its highest honor, the Cura Personalis Award, upon Martin J. Blaser, MD, a world-renowned microbiome researcher and clinician.

3 Nov 2015

Environmental and lifestyle factors contribute to development of celiac disease

Celiac disease incidence has increased among Swedish children between 2 to 15 years. The significant escalation in celiac disease can be associated with planned caesarean sections, urinary tract infections during pregnancy, season of birth and being born in south Sweden.

3 Nov 2015

Physicians leave severe acne patients on ineffective antibiotics for too long before prescribing more potent drug

A medical records analysis by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center concludes that physicians who treat severe acne leave too many patients on ineffective antibiotics for far too long before prescribing more potent needed therapy with the medication isotretinoin, sometimes known by its former brand name Accutane.

30 Oct 2015

Study reports discovery of new class of DNA repair enzyme

This year's Nobel Prize in chemistry was given to three scientists who each focused on one piece of the DNA repair puzzle. Now a new study, reported online Oct. 28 in the journal Nature, reports the discovery of a new class of DNA repair enzyme.

30 Oct 2015

Antibiotics have no adverse outcome on child's physical development, shows study

The four out of ten women who use antibiotics during pregnancy can breathe easy, as a comprehensive new study shows that the two most often prescribed drugs have no adverse outcome on the child's physical development.

30 Oct 2015

Scientists call for coordinated effort to drive cutting edge microbiome research

A consortium of 48 scientists from 50 institutions in the United States - including Pamela Silver, Ph.D., a Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University - are calling for a Unified Microbiome Initiative that would span national cross-institutional and cross-governmental agency support.

29 Oct 2015

New broad-spectrum antibiotic can kill bacteria by punching holes in their membranes

Bacteria have many methods of adapting to resist antibiotics, but a new class of spiral polypeptides developed at the University of Illinois targets one thing no bacterium can live without: an outer membrane.

29 Oct 2015

Diabetic patients at increased risk for developing surgical site infections

Diabetic patients are at considerably increased risk for developing surgical site infections (SSIs) while undergoing most types of surgeries, compared to non-diabetic patients, according to a new study published online today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

28 Oct 2015

Infections with Lone star ticks appear to be surging but deaths are not, new study reveals

A mild disease spread by the aggressive Lone star tick that is now colonizing large swaths of the United States is being mistaken for Rocky Mountain spotted fever, according to a new study from scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

28 Oct 2015

Routine use of antibiotics may not reduce infections in severe appendectomies

With acute appendicitis ranking among the nation's most common acute surgical emergencies, researchers studied the relatively routine use of post-operative antibiotics in complicated cases and found that they didn't reduce infections after surgery. They also found that patients who received post-operative antibiotics remained in the hospital up to one day longer than similar patients who had not received antibiotics.

26 Oct 2015

Phage shows strong anti-microbial activity against C. sakazakii bacterium

A phage showed strong anti-microbial activity against a type of food-borne bacterium that often kills infants after infecting them via infant formula. Phages are viruses that infect only bacteria. The research is published Oct. 23 online in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

24 Oct 2015

Study links antibiotic use during childhood to weight gain

Children who take antibiotics during the course of their childhood gain weight more quickly than those who do not, according to a study published in the International Journal of Obesity.

22 Oct 2015

Children who receive repeated antibiotics gain weight faster over time

Kids who receive antibiotics throughout the course of their childhoods gain weight significantly faster than those who do not, according to new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research.

22 Oct 2015

UCSF scientists urge hospitals to buy only antibiotic-free meat to help stop spread of antibiotic resistance

To help stop the spread of antibiotic resistance, UC San Francisco scientists are urging hospitals around the country to stop buying meat from animals that were given antibiotics for growth promotion.

19 Oct 2015

Nanodiamonds may improve outcomes for patients undergoing root canals

People undergoing root canals may have gained a powerful, if tiny, new ally. Researchers from the UCLA School of Dentistry have found that using nanodiamonds to fortify a material used in the procedure could significantly improve outcomes for patients.

19 Oct 2015

Antibiotic resistance potentially threatens the safety and efficacy of surgical procedures and immunosuppression therapies

This week The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal published the strongest evidence to date that increasing antibiotic resistance could have disastrous consequences for patients undergoing surgery or cancer chemotherapy. Based on a review of published literature, researchers predict that a 30% reduction in the efficacy of the prophylactic antibiotics routinely given when these procedures are performed could result in 120,000 more infections and 6300 infection-related deaths every year in the USA alone.

16 Oct 2015

New manganese-based catalyst may accelerate drug discovery, development

Chemists have long believed that inserting nitrogen -- a beneficial ingredient for making many pharmaceuticals and other biologically active molecules -- into a carbon-hydrogen bond requires a trade-off between catalyst reactivity and selectivity.

15 Oct 2015

Drug-resistant E. coli infections on the rise in community hospitals

Drug-resistant E. coli infections are on the rise in community hospitals, where more than half of U.S. patients receive their health care, according to a new study from Duke Medicine.

14 Oct 2015

Tamoxifen drug clears MRSA, reduces mortality

Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences have found that the breast cancer drug tamoxifen gives white blood cells a boost, better enabling them to respond to, ensnare and kill bacteria in laboratory experiments. Tamoxifen treatment in mice also enhances clearance of the antibiotic-resistant bacterial pathogen MRSA and reduces mortality.

13 Oct 2015