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Researchers to use human bone remains for studying predictable, postmortem microbes

It's one of the most salient questions in any death investigation, and one of the first asked by both law enforcement and loved ones: Not just how, but when did a person die?

9 Dec 2019

Dead probiotic reduces age-related leaky gut in older mice, study finds

Scientists at Wake Forest School of Medicine have identified a dead probiotic that reduces age-related leaky gut in older mice. The study is published in the journal GeroScience.

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

Piglet study shows probiotics and prebiotics work differently in girls and boys

The team from the Universities of Bristol and Reading found that 28-day old piglets produced very different levels of immune cells, antibodies and other immune-associated molecules depending on their sex, contradicting previous evidence suggesting that the difference in immunity begins during puberty.

9 Dec 2019

New tool can rapidly reveal unintended changes made by CRISPR-directed gene editing

Amidst rising hopes for using CRISPR gene editing tools to repair deadly mutations linked to conditions like cystic fibrosis and sickle cell disease, a new study in the Nature journal Communications Biology describes a new innovation that could accelerate this work by rapidly revealing unintended and potentially harmful changes introduced by a gene editing process.

6 Dec 2019

Kanazawa University researchers describe genetic typing of Pseudomonas putida

Pseudomonas putida is a bacterium occuring in soil, aquatic environments and plants. Although the virulence of Pseudomonas p. -- the ability of the bacterium to infect its host and inflict a disease -- is considered to be low, infection in severely ill patients can be lethal. P. putida strains (also called isolates) have been found in hospitals, e.g. in urine, blood or wound discharge from patients, and such clinical isolates have been found to display resistance to drugs.

6 Dec 2019

Genetically engineered living hydrogel material facilitates intestinal wound healing

About 1.6 million people in the US alone currently have lifelong and incurable Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, and 70,000 new cases are diagnosed in the USA each year.

6 Dec 2019

Mechanical stress can interrupt bacteria’s ability to survive toxin exposure

A random conversation between two Cornell researchers at a child's birthday party led to a collaboration and new understanding of how bacteria resist toxins, which may lead to new tools in the fight against harmful infections.

5 Dec 2019

Manuka honey fights infection in surgical dressings

And now, Manuka honey is proving a gamechanger in the fight against extremely drug-resistant infections, according to a new study published in the journal Frontiers.

5 Dec 2019

Typhoid conjugate vaccine proves its worth in the field

A new typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV) that has been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety has proved extremely effective in both young children and adults in a high-endemicity area for the first time. With almost 82% of recipients showing protection against typhoid, the vaccine promises to help control this deadly disease that claims up to 160,000 of its 11 million victims each year.

5 Dec 2019

Perinatal maternal antibiotic exposure may impair lung development in premature infants

New research in mice suggests that exposure to antibiotics before birth may impair lung development in premature infants. The study, the first to explore the gut-lung axis in prematurity, is published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology—Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology and was chosen as an APSselect article for December.

5 Dec 2019

NeutroCure project aims to cure inflammatory disease with neutrophils

Curing disease with neutrophils; this is the goal of the NeutroCure project. How will that work? "Neutrophils have a yin yang character," explained Andrés Hidalgo, whose team at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares is one of six member groups participating in this project coordinated by Andriy Mokhir Friedrich from Alexander University, Germany.

5 Dec 2019

Using drug-eluting medical devices to fight bacterial infections

Medical practitioners routinely outfit patients with devices ranging from cardiovascular stents, pacemakers, catheters, and therapeutic lenses to orthopedic, breast, dental, and cochlear implants and prostheses.

5 Dec 2019

Ground breaking discovery could lead to new anti TB drugs

New drugs to treat strains of TB which have become resistant to treatment are now a possibility following a ground breaking discovery from the University of Surrey.

4 Dec 2019

Drops containing a specific probiotic strain can reduce colic in infants

Probiotics--or "good bacteria"--have been used to treat infant colic with varying success. In a new trial published in the journal Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, investigators have shown that drops containing a particular probiotic strain (Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BB-12) reduced the duration of daily crying by more than 50% in 80% of the 40 infants who received the probiotic once daily for 28 days.

4 Dec 2019

Hybrid antibiotics show promising results in eradicating deadly staph infections

Eradicating deadly staph using a new breed of antibiotics has revealed promising results in research released by QUT, to help overcome one of the biggest modern medical challenges.

4 Dec 2019

New study could help prevent fatal infections in babies

Premature infants born before 28-30 weeks of life are at high risk for many complications, among which the chances of dying from an infection starting in the intestine are very great. A new study published in the journal Nature Medicine reports that such infections are very much more likely if something interferes with the normal microbial accumulation in the gut. Adding certain bacterial strains protects against such infections, on the other hand.

3 Dec 2019

Justinianic plague did not wipe out the Romans as history books tell us

A new study has revealed that it was not plague that killed half of the world’s population and thus proved to be the downfall of the Roman Empire as we know from history. The study was published this week in the latest issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study involved scholars from different fields including history, archaeology and science. The study is titled, “The Justinianic Plague: An inconsequential pandemic?”

3 Dec 2019

New findings may help researchers leverage ERAP1 to fight cancer

In a paper published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, University of Illinois at Chicago researchers and colleagues report a new mechanism for detecting foreign material during early immune responses.

3 Dec 2019

Isolated components of Saussurea have positive effect on bone tissue regeneration

Saussurea controversa is a perennial herbaceous plant that has been traditionally used by the people of the Far East, Siberia, Tibet, and Mongolia to treat liver, kidney, digestive tract, and locomotive diseases. Its dried leaves are sold in pharmacies because their decoction is widely used as a medicine against cold and bronchitis. To understand what substances this plant owes its medicinal properties to, a team of scientists from Siberian State Medical University and Tomsk Polytechnic University extracted individual components from the plant and determined their composition.

3 Dec 2019