Quorum Sensing News and Research

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European chestnut leaves contain ingredients with power to disarm deadly staph bacteria

Leaves of the European chestnut tree contain ingredients with the power to disarm dangerous staph bacteria without boosting its drug resistance, scientists have found.

24 Aug 2015

UW microbiologist receives 2015 Shaw Prize in life science and medicine

UW microbiologist Peter Greenberg has long been fascinated with how bacteria in cells communicate for cooperative activities, including the spread of infection. He started exploring the subject in 1977, thinking the implications could be far-reaching.

18 Jun 2015

Unique ability helps prolific bacterium to afflict humans, animals and even plants

New research has found that one of the world's most prolific bacteria manages to afflict humans, animals and even plants by way of a mechanism not before seen in any infectious microorganism -- a sense of touch. This unique ability helps make the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa ubiquitous, but it also might leave these antibiotic-resistant organisms vulnerable to a new form of treatment.

23 Nov 2014

Honey helps fight antibiotic resistance, says study

Honey, that delectable condiment for breads and fruits, could be one sweet solution to the serious, ever-growing problem of bacterial resistance to antibiotics, researchers said here today.

17 Mar 2014

Ajoene in garlic prevents bacteria from destroying white blood cells

Aggressive multi-resistant infections constitute an increasing health problem all over the world. Bacteria are developing resistance at an alarming pace, so new pharmaceuticals that can combat this threat are in great demand.

19 Feb 2014

New finding could help lead to better treatments for eczema

For the millions of people suffering from the intensely red, horribly itchy skin condition known as eczema, the only thing more maddening than their disease is the lack of understanding of what causes it, or makes it flare up from time to time.

31 Oct 2013

New discovery to fight against antibiotic-resistant superbugs

The fight against antibiotic-resistant superbugs has taken a step forward thanks to a new discovery by scientists at The University of Nottingham.

14 Aug 2013

Researchers visualize live cell-to-cell communication pathways in bacteria

Most bacteria are able to communicate with each other by secreting signaling molecules. Once the concentration of signals has reached a critical density (-the Quorum), the bacteria are able to coordinate their behavior

20 Jul 2013

Wisconsin scientists synthesize potent compounds to curb bacteria that cause staph infections

In an age when microbial pathogens are growing increasingly resistant to the conventional antibiotics used to tamp down infection, a team of Wisconsin scientists has synthesized a potent new class of compounds capable of curbing the bacteria that cause staph infections.

24 May 2013

Sorrento Therapeutics' anti-MRSA program gets NIAID support

Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that its Fast-Track Advanced Technology Small Business Technology Transfer Research grant (#1R42AI098182-02) from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health, supporting the development of novel human antibody therapeutics to combat Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus or Staph) infections, including methicillin-resistant S. aureus, was renewed for the second year of a two year Phase I grant award.

18 May 2013

Taste receptor governs respiratory infection susceptibility

The bitter taste receptor TAS2R38 may play a role in innate defense, say researchers, who have found that variations in the TAS2R38 gene may regulate susceptibility to respiratory infection.

12 Nov 2012

Better understanding of clotting dynamics in atherosclerosis could lead to more effective drugs

The disease atherosclerosis involves the build up of fatty tissue within arterial walls, creating unstable structures known as plaques. These plaques grow until they burst, rupturing the wall and causing the formation of a blood clot within the artery. These clots also grow until they block blood flow; in the case of the coronary artery, this can cause a heart attack.

8 Nov 2012

Researchers show how bacteria control processes in human cells

Bacteria can talk to each other via molecules they themselves produce. The phenomenon is called quorum sensing, and is important when an infection propagates. Now, researchers at Link-ping University in Sweden are showing how bacteria control processes in human cells the same way.

6 Nov 2012

Study identifies certain small molecule chemicals that can disrupt quorum sensing in A. baumanni

Acinetobacter baumanni, a pathogenic bacterium that is a poster child of deadly hospital acquired infections, is one tough customer.

22 Aug 2012

Sorrento receives $300,000 STTR grant to develop novel therapeutics against Staph infections

Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. today announced that it has received an Advanced Technology Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Fast Track grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a division of the National Institutes of Health, or NIH.

8 Jun 2012

Cyanobacterium produces compounds that could treat chronic inflammatory conditions

A seaweed considered a threat to the healthy growth of coral reefs in Hawaii may possess the ability to produce substances that could one day treat human diseases, a new study led by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has revealed.

25 May 2012

Effectiveness of 'quorum sensing' directly depends on density of bacterial populations

Scientists at The University of Nottingham have opened the way for more accurate research into new ways to fight dangerous bacterial infections by proving a long-held theory about how bacteria communicate with each other.

18 May 2012

Low and high ID50 bacteria act through stealth and frontal attack

Why is it that Mycobacterium tuberculosis can cause tuberculosis with as little as 10 cells, whereas Vibrio cholerae requires the host to ingest up to tens of millions of cells to cause cholera? This is the question that two research teams, from the Pasteur Institute, in France, and the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia and the University of Lisbon, in Portugal, answer in the latest issue of the journal PLoS Pathogens.

28 Feb 2012

Antivirulence drugs may fight infection and suppress resistance

Antivirulence drugs disarm pathogens rather than kill them, and although they could be effective in theory, antivirulence drugs have never been tested in humans. A new study to be published in the online journal mBio- on Tuesday, October 18 reveals these drugs have the potential to fight infection while avoiding the pitfalls of drug resistance.

11 Oct 2011

Researchers discover how a novel type of antibody works against pneumococcal bacteria

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered how a novel type of antibody works against pneumococcal bacteria.

23 Sep 2011