E. coli News and Research

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E. coli or Escherichia coli is the name of a type of bacteria that lives in your intestines. Most types of E. coli are harmless. However, some types can make you sick and cause diarrhea. One type causes travelers' diarrhea. The worst type of E. coli causes bloody diarrhea, and can sometimes cause kidney failure and even death. These problems are most likely to occur in children and in adults with weak immune systems. You can get E. coli infections by eating foods containing the bacteria. To help avoid food poisoning and prevent infection, handle food safely. Cook meat well, wash fruits and vegetables before eating or cooking them, and avoid unpasteurized milk and juices. You can also get the infection by swallowing water in a swimming pool contaminated with human waste. Most cases of E. coli infection get better without treatment in 5 to 10 days.

Research findings may lead to new ways to thwart drug resistance

Penicillin, the wonder drug discovered in 1928, works in ways that are still mysterious almost a century later. One of the oldest and most widely used antibiotics, it attacks enzymes that build the bacterial cell wall, a mesh that surrounds the bacterial membrane and gives the cells their integrity and shape. Once that wall is breached, bacteria die -- allowing us to recover from infection.

6 Dec 2014

FDA Advisory Committee votes in favor of Actavis' ceftazidime-avibactam

Actavis plc today announced that the Anti-Infective Drugs Advisory Committee convened by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has voted to recommend approval of Actavis' New Drug Application (NDA) for ceftazidime-avibactam, an investigational antibiotic being developed to treat hospitalized patients when limited or no treatment options are available for complicated intra-abdominal infections (cIAI) (in combination with metronidazole) and complicated urinary tract infections (cUTI) (including acute pyelonephritis) caused by Gram-negative pathogens.

5 Dec 2014

Researchers create synthetic surface to control adhesion of E. coli bacteria

A research team from Kiel University and Goethe University Frankfurt has jointly created a synthetic surface on which the adhesion of E. coli bacteria can be controlled. The layer, which is only approximately four nanometres thick, imitates the saccharide coating (glycocalyx) of cells onto which the bacteria adhere such as during an infection. This docking process can be switched on and off using light.

3 Dec 2014

NPS MedicineWise Reducing Antibiotic Resistance program focuses on urinary tract infections

The next phase of the NPS MedicineWise Reducing Antibiotic Resistance program for health professionals has launched today focused on the complex topic of managing urinary tract infections (UTIs).

21 Nov 2014

NPS MedicineWise calls all Australians to join the fight against antibiotic resistance

As Antibiotic Awareness Week 2014 is held across Australia from 17-23 November, NPS MedicineWise is asking all Australians to imagine a world without antibiotics and join the fight against antibiotic resistance.

17 Nov 2014

Strains of enterotoxigenic E. coli worldwide have similar toxins and virulence factors

The strains of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) that infect adults and children in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, have notably similar toxins and virulence factors, according to research published ahead of print in the Journal of Bacteriology.

14 Nov 2014

Denmark researchers calculate the real burden of foodborne infections

Campylobacter is the foodborne bacteria that contributes most to the burden of disease in Denmark. This is the finding of a study from the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, which for the first time in Denmark ranks three foodborne bacteria according to the burden of disease they impose on society as a whole.

13 Nov 2014

Research opens new potential target against enterics

In research published in Nature Chemical Biology, scientists from RIKEN in Japan have discovered a surprisingly simple mechanism through which enterics can adjust to the very different oxygen environments inside the human gut and outside.

12 Nov 2014

Study reveals ETEC bacteria's genetic composition

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) bacteria are responsible each year for around 400 million cases of diarrhoea and 400,000 deaths in the world's low- and middle-income countries. Children under the age of five are most affected.

11 Nov 2014

ETEC vaccine candidate provides significant protection against bacterial diarrhea

New results from a safety and immunogenicity study, which included a challenge phase to test efficacy, indicate that a live attenuated enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) vaccine candidate, given in combination with a novel adjuvant, provided significant protection against disease.

28 Oct 2014

New findings could help develop antibiotics with lower risk of resistance

Scientists have used computer simulations to show how bacteria are able to destroy antibiotics – a breakthrough which will help develop drugs which can effectively tackle infections in the future.

20 Oct 2014

Females' natural resistance to bacterial pneumonia is linked to NOS3 enzyme

Researchers have linked increased resistance to bacterial pneumonia in female mice to an enzyme activated by the female sex hormone estrogen.

17 Oct 2014

Melbourne researchers suggest new mechanism for bowel cancer development

Melbourne researchers have challenged conventional thinking on how the bowel lining develops and, in the process, suggested a new mechanism for how bowel cancer starts.

17 Oct 2014

New UCLA study reveals why people with autism experience neural stem cell overgrowth after birth

People with autism spectrum disorder often experience a period of accelerated brain growth after birth. No one knows why, or whether the change is linked to any specific behavioral changes.

10 Oct 2014

Contaminated duodenoscopes associated with E coli outbreak at Illinois hospital

Despite no lapses in the disinfection process recommended by the manufacturer being identified, specialized gastrointestinal endoscopes called duodenoscopes had bacterial contamination associated with an outbreak of a highly resistant strain of E coli at a hospital in Illinois, according to a study in the October 8 JAMA, a theme issue on infectious disease.

8 Oct 2014

FDA grants QIDP and Fast Track designation to Nabriva's lefamulin for treatment of CABP, ABSSSI

Nabriva Therapeutics AG, a biotechnology company focused on developing pleuromutilins, a new class of antibiotics for the treatment of serious infections caused by resistant Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens, announced today that the United States Food and Drug Administration has granted Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) as well as Fast Track status designation to Nabriva's lead product lefamulin, for the treatment of community-acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP) and acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI).

8 Oct 2014

LLNL scientists issued patent for producing antimicrobial compounds to fight superbugs

Superbugs, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, have been on the rise since antibiotics were first introduced 80 years ago. That's because these germ-fighting agents have lost their punch from being overprescribed and misused, allowing bacteria pathogens to develop immunities against them.

8 Oct 2014

Researchers demonstrate involvement of ClpB protein in eating disorders

Eating disorders (ED) such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and binge eating disorder affect approximately 5-10% of the general population, but the biological mechanisms involved are unknown. Researchers at Inserm Unit 1073, "Nutrition, inflammation and dysfunction of the gut-brain axis" (Inserm/University of Rouen) have demonstrated the involvement of a protein produced by some intestinal bacteria that may be the source of these disorders.

7 Oct 2014

Research report on biopharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing markets

The total biopharmaceutical manufacturing market is growing, according to Kalorama Information's report, Biopharmaceutical and Vaccine Production Markets.

24 Sep 2014

New approach to diagnose tuberculosis

Researchers working in the UK and The Gambia, have developed a new approach to the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) that relies on direct sequencing of DNA extracted from sputum (a technique called metagenomics) to detect and characterize the bacteria that cause TB without the need for time-consuming culture of bacteria in the laboratory.

23 Sep 2014