Antimicrobials are substance that kills microorganisms such as bacteria or mold, or stops them from growing and causing disease.
Using probiotics successfully against a number of animal diseases has helped scientists from University College Cork, Ireland to understand some of the ways in which they work, which could lead to them using probiotics to prevent and even to treat human diseases.
Attaching an antimicrobial drug, which is activated by light, to a peptide that binds to bacteria and stops them making toxins, produced a "magic bullet" that was highly effective at killing the superbug, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Researchers at University College Cork have used bioengineering to produce a new generation of natural antibiotics that target harmful micro-organisms such as MRSA and the food-borne pathogen, Listeria monocytogenes
In the fight against infected skin wounds, mixing tea tree oil and silver or putting them in liposomes, (small spheres made from natural lipids), greatly increases their antimicrobial activity and may minimise any side effects.
Soldiers who survive severe injuries on battlefields such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan can be at risk from developing infections of their wounds with multidrug resistant bacteria.
Sagent Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of azithromycin for injection, a semi-synthetic, macrolide antibiotic that is used to treat a wide variety of bacterial infections. Sagent will offer azithromycin in a 500 mg vial for intravenous use.
Experts from Queen's University Belfast have developed new agents to fight MRSA and other hospital-acquired infections that are resistant to antibiotics.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Plexus Institute (Plexus) today announce results from an analysis of a multifaceted methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) prevention program that employed positive deviance (PD), a novel approach to social and behavioral change, to trigger significant reductions in MRSA incidence ranging from 26 to 62 percent at participating hospitals.
Researchers at the University of Bath are to be part of a 3 million Euros Europe-wide research collaboration to pioneer research into safer, more effective anti-bacterial plastics and coatings that can be used in items such as food packaging, medical devices to wound dressings, and nappies.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Plexus Institute (Plexus) has announced results from an analysis of a multifaceted methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) prevention program that employed positive deviance (PD), a novel approach to social and behavioral change, to trigger significant reductions in MRSA incidence ranging from 26 to 62 percent at participating hospitals.
Hand-washing, a clean environment, appropriate infection barriers and early identification of patients at high risk of colonization with a transmissible microorganism remain the essential measures to prevent and control infection.
CDC last week sent out letters to several chain pharmacies that offer no-cost prescription antibiotics to low-income consumers urging them to promote responsible use of antibiotics, the New York Times reports.
An experimental microbicide containing a naturally occurring compound provides protection in monkeys against the simian version of HIV by diminishing immune responses to the virus, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Antibiotic resistance and the rise of illnesses that cannot be treated easily because of drug resistance is a health concern around the world.
Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. has announced that its collaborators at the University of Pennsylvania have opened a Phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate SB-728-T for the treatment of HIV/AIDS.
University of Michigan scientists report highly encouraging evidence that a super-fine oil-and-water emulsion, already shown to kill many other microbes, may be able to quell the ravaging, often drug-resistant infections that cause nearly all cystic fibrosis deaths.
Rates of antibiotic-resistant head and neck infections increased in pediatric patients nationwide between 2001 and 2006, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
This year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve the first malaria drug to contain artemisinin, a wormwood derivative from China that has proven effective for malaria in Africa and Asia.
Hundreds of trillions of bacteria make their home in the vertebrate gut. Though many of these microbes perform helpful duties for their host, others - the pathogens - are unwelcome visitors, causing disease.
Like firemen fighting fire with fire, researchers at the University of Illinois and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have found a way to fool a bacteria's evolutionary machinery into programming its own death.