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Type of upper airway bacteria could influence asthma severity

A new study raises the possibility of modulating asthma symptoms via the bacteria that commonly live in the upper airway. The work, which was published on December 16, 2019, in the journal Nature Communications, shows that in children who have mild to moderate asthma, the microbiome of the upper airway could determine how severe the symptoms are.

16 Dec 2019

Scientists modify approved cancer drug to develop new antibiotic

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are increasingly the source of deadly infections. A team of scientists from the Technical University of Munich and the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research in Braunschweig have now modified an approved cancer drug to develop an active agent against multidrug-resistant pathogens.

16 Dec 2019

Modifying a cancer drug has created a new agent for multi-resistant infections

Researchers have modified a cancer drug to create an agent that is effective at treating multi-drug-resistant infections.

16 Dec 2019

New gene technology shows 100-fold efficiency in targeting antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Taking advantage of powerful advances in CRISPR gene editing, scientists at the University of California San Diego have set their sights on one of society's most formidable threats to human health.

16 Dec 2019

Study suggests link between bacteria in the upper airway and asthma severity

A new study led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests there is a link between bacteria that live in the upper airway and the severity of asthma symptoms among children with mild to moderate asthma.

16 Dec 2019

Promising greater safety, a tiny widget creates chaos for tube feeders

Rachel Glenn loves to puree food and put it in her 4-year-old's feeding tube. The Arkansas mom said her thick concoctions of fruit, vegetables, meat and grains provide the concentrated nutrition he needs.

16 Dec 2019

Scientists develop an approach to vaccinate against gut inflammation

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is an umbrella term that describes many disorders that involve chronic inflammation of the digestive tract, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. These conditions are tied to certain alternations in the gut flora.

12 Dec 2019

Wayne State's College of Engineering receives $1.7 million to develop novel insulin delivery system

Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin -- a hormone that regulates blood sugar -- or the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. According to the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation, the disease is increasing at an alarming rate in the United States, with an estimated 30.3 million people currently with diabetes.

12 Dec 2019

Molecular drills target and destroy deadly superbugs

Molecular drills have gained the ability to target and destroy deadly bacteria that have evolved resistance to nearly all antibiotics. In some cases, the drills make the antibiotics effective once again.

12 Dec 2019

Researchers aim to improve oral delivery of insulin for diabetes patients

Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin -- a hormone that regulates blood sugar-- or the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.

12 Dec 2019

Gut disease and gene analysis networks

Gut diseases are difficult to diagnose in many cases, and their underlying dysfunction is hard to understand in many cases. Now, a new study published in the journal Molecular Omics promises to uncover a better insight into how these conditions occur and their mechanisms, by providing a deeper look at how genes interact in complex ways in health and fail to do so in disease.

11 Dec 2019

Researchers test vaccine strategy for chronic inflammatory diseases

Chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn's Disease and ulcerative colitis, are linked to abnormalities of the gut microbiota in humans and in animals. Patients generally present reduced bacterial diversity in their intestinal flora along with excessive levels of bacteria that express a protein called flagellin, which favors their mobility.

11 Dec 2019

Nano-sized vesicles released by bacteria may protect against HIV infection

Nano-sized vesicles released by certain bacteria that inhabit the vagina may protect against HIV infection, suggests a study of human cells and tissues by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the University of Bologna, Italy. Known as extracellular vesicles, these bubble-like particles are produced by many kinds of cells and are thought to transport molecules from one cell to another.

11 Dec 2019

New approach to alter intestinal microbiota and protect against inflammatory diseases

Targeted immunization against bacterial flagellin, a protein that forms the appendage that enables bacterial mobility, can beneficially alter the intestinal microbiota, decreasing the bacteria's ability to cause inflammation and thus protecting against an array of chronic inflammatory diseases, according to a new study by the Institute for Biomedical Sciences and the Neuroscience Institute at Georgia State University.

11 Dec 2019

Modifier gene offers a likely explanation for less infection in some patients with cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis is caused by an inherited mutation in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene.

10 Dec 2019

ERC promotes CRISPR research to better treat infections

Chase Beisel heads the "Synthetic Biology of RNA" research group at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg, a branch of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig and run in collaboration with the Julius-Maximilians-Universität in Würzburg.

10 Dec 2019

Researchers discover a widespread method used by phages to hide from bacterial defenses

University of Otago researchers have discovered how viruses that specifically kill bacteria can outwit bacteria by hiding from their defenses, findings which are important for the development of new antimicrobials based on viruses and provide a significant advance in biological knowledge.

10 Dec 2019

Study: Claim lines for Lyme disease have increased 117% from 2007 to 2018

From 2007 to 2018, claim lines with diagnoses of Lyme disease increased nationally 117 percent, according to a new white paper from FAIR Health, a national, independent nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information.

10 Dec 2019

'Achilles' heel' of deadly superbug identified

A deadly superbug that infects an estimated 54,500 Americans a year has a secret weapon, a protein, that allows it to defy antibiotic treatment and immune system attacks.

9 Dec 2019

Some phages employ new strategy to avoid becoming the next casualty of DNA-dicing enzymes

Bacteria and the viruses that infect them are engaged in a molecular arms race as ancient as life itself. Evolution has equipped bacteria with an arsenal of immune enzymes, including CRISPR-Cas systems, that target and destroy viral DNA. But bacteria-killing viruses, also known as phages, have devised their own tools to help them outmaneuver even the most formidable of these bacterial defenses.

9 Dec 2019