Bacteria News and Research

RSS

Healthiest gut bacteria with plant-based or Mediterranean diet

A new study shows that specific foods that are supplied by either a plant-based or a Mediterranean-type diet can protect the gut against inflammatory disorders, by selectively promoting the growth of anti-inflammatory bacteria.

21 Oct 2019

Discovery about DNA-reeling bacteria can help inform strategies to stop bacterial infection

A new study from Indiana University has revealed a previously unknown role a protein plays in helping bacteria reel in DNA in their environment -- like a fisherman pulling up a catch from the ocean.

21 Oct 2019

Researchers identify new TB enzyme target to help fight deadly infection

Researchers have found a crucial enzyme in tuberculosis (TB) to target, allowing the development of new treatments to help fight against the disease's drug resistance.

18 Oct 2019

Building models to reconstruct evolutionary change more accurately than ever before

Remember domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species and Darwin's tree of life metaphor we learned about in high school biology? That way of describing living-things lineages is just science's best guess about how genes have mutated and split over time to change things into what they are today.

17 Oct 2019

Lyme vaccine on the horizon, says new study

Lyme disease is a dreaded disease caused by the bite of an infected tick. The only way to prevent it is by not getting bitten by the tick. However, this is not a practical recommendation, since even today about 300,000 thousand people are diagnosed with this infection, in the US alone, and over 100,000 in Europe, each year.

17 Oct 2019

Raw pet food a risk for humans and animals

The team wrote, “Feeding pets raw meat-based diets (RMBDs) has become increasingly popular but may constitute a risk due to the contamination with pathogenic and antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria.”

17 Oct 2019

Novel antibiotic-free approach to tackle superbugs

Scientists have uncovered a novel antibiotic-free approach that could help prevent and treat one of the most widespread bacterial pathogens, using nanocapsules made of natural ingredients.

17 Oct 2019

Tips to help strengthen your defenses this flu season

Flu season can take its toll on your health, but one way to fight the virus is to stop the spread of germs at home.

17 Oct 2019

Substance use disorder can complicate postoperative valvular heart disease, shows study

Patients who suffer from infective endocarditis (IE) and struggle with substance use disorder (SUD) have a 240% increased risk of dying within 6 months to 5 years after valve surgery compared to other IE patients, according to a study published online today in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

17 Oct 2019

Genes remember having low social status in the past

A new study in monkeys, published on October 14, 2019, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that organisms at the bottom of the social hierarchy live shorter lives. Moreover, they experience more sickness, and may continue to experience health problems despite moving up later. Adverse experiences of social life continue to reflect in their genes much longer than the actual experience, in the form of changes in gene expression via altered gene regulation.

16 Oct 2019

New rapid assay for Lyme disease could lead to a point-of-care diagnostic test

A study published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology describes a new rapid assay for Lyme disease that could lead to a practical test for use by healthcare providers.

16 Oct 2019

Nanomeshes could be effective drug delivery system for antibiotics

The fight against global antibiotic resistance has taken a major step forward with scientists discovering a concept for fabricating nanomeshes as an effective drug delivery system for antibiotics.

16 Oct 2019

Study: Genetic differences in the immune system shape bacteria that colonize the digestive system

Genetic differences in the immune system shape the collections of bacteria that colonize the digestive system, according to new research by scientists at the University of Chicago.

16 Oct 2019

Researchers predict Tularemia outbreaks as climate changes

Stockholm University researchers have found that the impact of climate change of disease incidence of tularemia could be statistically predicted. In high-latitude regions, where the disease was less common, global warming could lead to increasing number of cases of the disease they wrote.

15 Oct 2019

Engineered communities of cells make long-distance calls

The search for effective biological tools is a marathon, not a sprint, even when the distances are on the microscale. A discovery at Rice University on how engineered communities of cells communicate is a long step in the right direction.

15 Oct 2019

Study suggests new model of treatment for heart attack or stroke victims

Each year, heart attacks kill almost 10 million people in the world, and more than 6 million die from stroke. A heart attack is caused by a clot that blocks the artery blood flow. Unirrigated tissues are deprived from the oxygen that is carried by the blood. Under these conditions, the affected tissues undergo a rapid necrosis.

15 Oct 2019

Glycans in mucus are responsible for microbe-taming, study reveals

More than 200 square meters of our bodies -- including the digestive tract, lungs, and urinary tract -- are lined with mucus. In recent years, scientists have found some evidence that mucus is not just a physical barrier that traps bacteria and viruses, but it can also disarm pathogens and prevent them from causing infections.

14 Oct 2019