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Researchers describe antibiotic resistance as either selfish or co-operative

Trace concentrations of antibiotic, such as those found in sewage outfalls, are enough to enable bacteria to keep antibiotic resistance, new research from the University of York has found. The concentrations are much lower than previously anticipated, and help to explain why antibiotic resistance is so persistent in the environment.

15 Mar 2016

BD MedMined Surveillance Advisor finishes first in Infection Control and Monitoring category

BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), a leading medical technology company, announced today that BD MedMined Surveillance Advisor has been named a 2015/2016 Category Leader for Infection Control and Monitoring in the 2015/2016 Best in KLAS: Software and Service report, based on customer feedback.

15 Mar 2016

St. Jude scientists develop insights to guide development of powerful novel anti-influenza drugs

By analyzing the molecular details of how artificially created drug-resistant flu strains manage to survive treatment, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have developed insights to guide development of powerful new anti-influenza drugs. These compounds will target a viral enzyme critical to the virus' proliferation in the body.

15 Mar 2016

UCSF study marks important step toward finding cure for Ebola

In experiments carried out partly at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, scientists have determined in atomic detail how a potential drug molecule fits into and blocks a channel in cell membranes that Ebola and related "filoviruses" need to infect victims' cells.

15 Mar 2016

Heart failure drug has unexpected ability to block herpesvirus infection

Today, there is only one class of antiviral medicines against herpesviruses - a family of viruses that cause mononucleosis, herpes, and shingles, among other illnesses - meaning options for treating these infections are limited. If viruses become resistant to these frontline treatments, a growing problem particularly in clinical settings, there are no alternative drugs to serve as backup.

15 Mar 2016

Researchers discover potentially-pathogenic bacteria in water supply pipes

The human microbiome, a diverse collection of microorganisms living inside us and on our skin, has attracted considerable attention for its role in a broad range of human health issues. Now, researchers are discovering that the built environment also has a microbiome, which includes a community of potentially-pathogenic bacteria living inside water supply pipes.

15 Mar 2016

One-fourth of seniors acquire new superbugs during hospital stay

One in four seniors is bringing along stowaways from the hospital to their next stop: superbugs on their hands.Moreover, seniors who go to a nursing home or other post-acute care facility will continue to acquire new superbugs during their stay, according to findings made by University of Michigan researchers published today in a JAMA Internal Medicine research letter.

15 Mar 2016

New microfluidic biosensor can identify white blood cells quickly for AIDS diagnosis

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a highly sensitive biosensor based on a differential immuno-capture technology that can detect sub-populations of white blood cells. As part of a small, disposable biochip, the microfluidic biosensor can count CD4+/CD8+ T cells quickly and accurately for AIDS diagnosis in the field.

14 Mar 2016

Biological change in mosquito mating could be used to fight mosquito-borne diseases

Genetic cues from male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes passed on during sex affect which genes are turned on or off in a females' reproductive tract post-mating, including genes related to blood feeding, egg development and immune defense, according to new Cornell research.

14 Mar 2016

NIH-funded investigators develop therapeutic compound effective against malaria

An international team that includes NIH-funded researchers at Stanford University has developed a therapeutic compound that is effective in inhibiting Plasmodium falciparum, one of five species of parasite that infects people with malaria, and the strain which causes the highest number of malaria deaths.

13 Mar 2016

Russian scientists propose new technique to analyze intestinal metagenomes

A group of Russian scientists, among them staff at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, have proposed a new method for the comparison of metagenome-coupled DNA sequences from all of the organisms in a sample of biological material being investigated.

11 Mar 2016

Low bone mass higher in HIV-infected males than in females

Accumulating evidence suggests that rates of low bone mass are greater in HIV-infected males than in females. Researchers led by Grace Aldrovandi, MD, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, studied 11 biomarkers associated with inflammation, bone loss and/or bone formation in about 450 individuals - assessed by sex and HIV status - to try to determine causes of this differential bone loss.

11 Mar 2016

Periodontitis linked to greater rates of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease patients

A new study, jointly led by the University of Southampton and King's College London, has found a link between gum disease and greater rates of cognitive decline in people with early stages of Alzheimer's Disease.

11 Mar 2016

Over- or under-reaction of immune system can be life-threatening

The dilemma of our immune system is comparable to the story of Icarus and Daedalus from Greek mythology. To escape their captivity, Daedalus built wings from feathers and wax for himself and his son. Daedalus warned his son that he must neither fly too high but also not too low, otherwise the sun's heat or the humidity of the sea would destroy his wings and he would crash. After they had successfully escaped, Icarus became boisterous and flew higher and higher until the sun began to melt the wax of his wings and he fell into the sea. Similarly, an over- or under-reaction of our immune system can be life-threatening.

11 Mar 2016

Low cost, easy-to-use test could help reduce TB death rate of HIV patients in sub-Saharan Africa

A low cost, easy to use, urine test to diagnose tuberculosis (TB) among patients with HIV could help reduce the TB death rate of HIV-positive patients in hospital, according to a new study published in The Lancet today.

10 Mar 2016

WHO: International experts agree to advance R&D for Zika medical products

After a three-day consultation on Zika research and development, international experts, convened by WHO, have agreed on top priorities to advance R&D for Zika medical products.

10 Mar 2016

ResApp forms new collaboration to field test pneumonia diagnostic tool in the developing world

ResApp Health Limited, announced today that it has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with a leading humanitarian organization and UniQuest (the main commercialization company of The University of Queensland), to enter into a partnership to field test ResApp’s smartphone-based pneumonia diagnostic tool in the developing world.

10 Mar 2016

Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine effective in treating malaria in pregnant women

Pregnant women can be protected from malaria, a major cause of prematurity, low birth weight and death in infants in Africa, with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine , an artemisinin combination therapy that is already widely used to treat malaria in adults, according to a study by researchers at UC San Francisco and in Uganda.

10 Mar 2016

VIGH study seeks to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Africa

Mother-to-child transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, is still a major problem in resource-limited, rural areas of the world where health care providers are scarce.

10 Mar 2016

Vanderbilt investigators isolate human antibodies against H7 bird flu

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have isolated human antibodies against a type of bird flu that has killed more than 200 people in China since 2012 and which may pose a worldwide pandemic threat.

10 Mar 2016