Thursday, March 28, 2024

A Parasite’s Parasites

French scientists identify a new giant virus, which carries the genome of a smaller virus and a new breed of mobile DNA.

Bacteria From Honey Bees Possible Alternative to Antibiotics

Raw honey has been used against infections for millennia, well before honey as we now know it was manufactured and sold in stores. So...

Going Viral – Bacteriophages Offer Sustainable, Powerful Method of Controlling Microbes

In the early 1900s, most researchers believed that DNA was a “stupid molecule,” too simple to be of any value in the transmission of...

Cold Sores Linked to Common Gene Mutation

Cold sores affect around one in five people but, until now, no one has been sure why some are more prone to the virus...

U.S. Patent for Novel Solution to Antibiotic Resistance Problem

A chemist based at the University of Copenhagen has taken out a patent for a drug that can make previously multidrug-resistant bacteria once again...

Fighting Microbes With Microbes

Doctors turn to good microbes to fight disease. Will the same strategy work with crops? Like humans, with their complement of microbes that aid in everything from immune responses to nutrition, plants rely on a vast array of bacteria and fungi for health and defense. Over the last decade, research has revealed many new functional aspects of the crosstalk between human-associated microbes and human cells, but plant biologists are only beginning to scratch the surface of the often surprising ways that soil microbiota impact plants

Potential Epidemic as Painful Mosquito-Borne Chikungunya Virus Arrives in U.S.

The tropical virus, Chikungunya, has turned up the U.S. and is poised to become an epidemic, according to researchers with the Centers for Disease Control...

Stomach Bacteria Switch Off Human Immune Defenses to Cause Disease

Helicobacter pylori is a bacterium that establishes a life-long stomach infection in humans, which in some cases can lead to duodenal ulcers or stomach cancer....

Spread of Drug-Resistant Superbug Increases Five-Fold in Southeastern U.S.

Cases of the highly contagious, drug-resistant bacteria, Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), have increased fivefold in community hospitals in the Southeastern United States, according to a...

Parasite in Cat Poop May Play a Role in Curing Cancer

Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is a single-celled parasite that is happiest in a cat’s intestines, but it can live in any warm blooded animal. Found...

Test Combo Diagnoses Invasive Aspergillosis with 100% Accuracy

Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is life threatening fungal infection, especially for patients whose immune systems are weakened by chemotherapy or immunosuppressive drugs. People with deficient immune systems – such as patients...

Overcoming Antibiotic Resistance with Bacteriophages

A team of scientists from Europe has recently isolated a group of naturally-occurring viruses that specifically target the highly infectious hospital superbug Clostridium difficile (C. diff). Dr Martha Clokie of...