The problem of hospital infection, severe disease caused by antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus bacteria, entails major costs and great suffering. Group A streptococcus bacteria, also called meat-eating killer bacteria, are another growing problem. A team of Lund scientists in Sweden has now developed a substance called Cystapep, which seems to work on bacteria that nothing else seems to be able to knock out.
If Cystapep delivers what it promises, this is nothing short of sensational. Swed
Scientists have successfully immunized mice against Ebola virus using hollow virus-like particles, or VLPs, which are non-infectious but capable of provoking a robust immune response. These Ebola VLPs conferred complete protection to mice exposed to lethal doses of the virus.
The work could serve as a basis for development of vaccines and other countermeasures to Ebola, which causes hemorrhagic fever with case fatality rates as high as 80 percent in humans. The virus, which is infectious by
Could yield advances in early diagnosis, treatment of lethal disease
Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have created bioengineered mice that develop aggressive, fatal pancreatic cancer through the same genetic mishaps that cause the disease in humans. The findings are being posted online today by the journal Genes and Development.
Because the mouse-model cancers start and progress along a path that closely resembles the disease’s course in humans, the scientist
People who tend to experience psychological distress are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than people who are less prone to experience distress, according to a study published in the December 9 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
In the study, those who most often experience negative emotions like depression and anxiety were twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease as those who were least prone to experience negative emotions.
More than 40% of bacteria found in chicken on sale in Switzerland is resistant to at least one antibiotic, says research published this week in BMC Public Health. The findings could have implications for treating food poisoning.
The bacteria, Campylobacter, causes between 5 and 14 percent of all diarrhoeal illness worldwide. The most common sources of infection are inadequately cooked meat, particularly poultry, unpasteurised milk and contaminated drinking water. The illness normally clea
Vanderbilt University researchers believe a slow electrochemical wave, known as a damped wave, may be one of the reasons that low-voltage defibrillation shocks fail to halt fibrillation in cardiac patients.
The findings by Vanderbilt University researchers John Wikswo, Veniamin Sidorov, Rubin Aliev, Marcella Woods, Franz Baudenbacher and Petra Baudenbacher were published in the Nov. 14 issue of Physical Review Letters.
Fibrillation is a series of rapid, disorganized contractions i
Genetically engineered stem cells can find tumors and then produce biological killing agents right at the cancer site, say researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, who have performed a number of successful “proof of concept” experiments in mice.
Their novel treatment, presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), may offer the first gene therapy “delivery system” capable of homing in on and then attacking cancer that has metastasize
While the nation’s blood supply is safe overall and there is a relatively small likelihood that transfusion recipients will acquire a transmitted disease, there are still risks involved when transferring one person’s blood into another. The advent of new diseases, such as West Nile Virus (WNV), increases the need for further clinical vigilance and improved screening methods.
The blood supply is currently inspected in minipools with nucleic acid testing for HIV, hepatitis C virus (
The drug rituximab significantly prolonged the lives of some people with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the most common form of leukemia in adult Americans.
The findings come from a comparative analysis of two completed national phase II and phase III clinical trials that will be presented Dec. 8, 8:00 a.m. PT, at the 45th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in San Diego, Calif.
The two multicenter clinical trials compare the antibody rituximab plus flud
Authors of a UK study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET propose a new approach for cervical cancer screening. Testing for the human papilloma virus (HPV)-the main cause of cervical cancer-could be the primary screening tool, with cytology reserved for women who test positive for HPV.
HPV testing (by genetic analysis) of cervical smears is known to be more sensitive than conventional cytology for detecting pre-malignant cervical cells called high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN
A study led by Imperial College London has shown for the first time it is possible to help prevent organ rejection using a novel strategy that redirects the body’s immune response instead of suppressing it.
Writing in the Journal of Clinical Investigation today, researchers from the University of Cambridge, the University of Edinburgh, Lorantis Ltd and Imperial demonstrate that it is possible in mice to alter whether T white blood cells specialise to attack foreign tissue and thus cause reje
In a daring yet successful experiment to cure deadly brain tumors, researchers have combined the cancer-killing properties of poliovirus together with a harmless genetic coding element from the common cold.
The resulting modified virus created a remarkably strong anti-cancer agent that rapidly killed cancer cells in laboratory cell cultures and in animals — and without causing polio, said Matthias Gromeier, M.D., assistant professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at the Duke Compre
Device Allows Early Detection of Botulism Toxins and More Effective Treatment
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have developed a device that speeds the detection of a virulent strain of botulism neurotoxin from hours or days to minutes, making treatment or vaccination more effective.
Botulinum neurotoxin B, one of five strains that are known to be toxic to humans, is targeted in the paper that appeared in the Nov. 11 issue of the Proceedings of the Nat
Researchers at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a protein that breast cancer tumors over-produce when they become resistant to the drug tamoxifen. The researchers said their finding could help them predict which tumors will benefit from tamoxifen — the front-line drug used to treat operable breast cancer — and which tumors won’t.
Future studies will be able to determine if tumors that over-produce this protein, called MTA-1, could be treated with a different hormonal
Bone marrow transplantation offers the hope of a complete cure for patients suffering from certain forms of cancer, such as leukemia or other immune deficiency diseases.
However, there is a risk that transplanted cells may recognize the recipient patient’s tissues as foreign and begin to attack them. This reaction, known as graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), can be lethal if it continues unchecked.
It has recently been shown in mice that the use of large numbers of immunoregul
Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have developed a new breast scanner that is designed to detect subtle changes in breast cells before a lump can be felt by hand or seen with X-ray mammography.
Such early detection should enable doctors to more successfully treat breast cancer before it has formed a tumor or spread to lymph nodes, said Martin Tornai, Ph.D., associate professor of radiology and biomedical engineering at Duke and developer of the device. The new camera has undergo
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