Hospital superbug debugged
October 13, 2011 in Diseases, Conditions, SyndromesAn international team of scientists led by Monash University researchers has uncovered how a common hospital bacterium becomes a deadly superbug that kills increasing numbers of hospital patients worldwide and accounts for an estimated $3.2 billion each year in health care costs in the US alone. Their findings appear October 13th in the Open Access journal PLoS Pathogens.
Team leader Dr Dena Lyras and lead author Dr Glen Carter, from the Monash University School of Biomedical Sciences, have linked a naturally occurring mutation in the microorganism Clostridium difficile to severe and debilitating diarrhoea in hospital patients undergoing antibiotic therapy. These antibiotics destroy the 'good' bacteria in the gut, which allows this 'bad' bacterium to colonise the colon, where it causes bowel infections that are difficult to treat.
"This mutation effectively wipes out an inbuilt disease regulator, called anti-sigma factor TcdC, producing hypervirulent strains of C. difficile that are resistant to antibiotics and which have been found to circulate in Canada, the US, UK, Europe and Australia," Dr Lyras says.
The results suggest that bacterial strains carrying this mutation have the potential to produce more of the harmful toxins that cause disease in susceptible individuals - commonly patients aged 65 years or over.
Dr. Carter adds, "As we now have a better understanding of these strains, we can design new strategies to prevent, control and treat these infections."
Provided by
Public Library of Science
-
Gene technology to fight lethal hospital acquired infection
Jan 19, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Scientists go into battle to disarm superbug
Mar 19, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
C. difficile and antibiotics not necessarily linked
Oct 07, 2008 |
not rated yet |
0
-
C. difficile increases risk of death 6-fold in patients with inflammatory bowel disease
Apr 20, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Antibiotic Use Boosts Risk of Infection with Clostridium Bacteria
Jul 02, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Of mice and mental models: Neuroscientific implications of risk-optimized behavior in the mouse
May 25, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Limits to growth: Scientists identify key metastasis-enabling enzyme
May 22, 2012 |
5 / 5 (4) |
0
-
Seeing is as seeing does: Spatially-structured retinal input in early development of cortical maps
Apr 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (4) |
1
-
Dreamless nights: Brain activity during nonrapid eye movement sleep
Apr 09, 2012 |
4.4 / 5 (12) |
0
-
Take your time: Neurobiology sheds light on the superiority of spaced vs. massed learning
Mar 28, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (21) |
3
-
Classical and Quantum Mechanics via Lie algebras
Apr 15, 2011
- More from Physics Forums - Independent Research
More news stories
Flesh-Eating bacteria no cause for panic, experts say
(HealthDay) -- Despite scary headlines by the score, most people don't have to fear that they'll be the next victim of the so-called flesh-eating bacteria disease, experts say.
Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes
20 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
World Health Assembly endorses new plan to increase global access to vaccines
Ministers of Health from 194 countries at the Sixty-fifth World Health Assembly today endorsed a landmark Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), a roadmap to prevent millions of deaths by 2020 through more equitable access to ...
Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes
May 25, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
Physicians definitively links irritable bowel syndrome and bacteria in gut
An overgrowth of bacteria in the gut has been definitively linked to Irritable Bowel Syndrome in the results of a new Cedars-Sinai study which used cultures from the small intestine. This is the first study to use this "gold ...
Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes
May 25, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
|
Study provides compelling evidence for an effective new treatment for tinnitus
According to new research, a multidisciplinary approach to treating tinnitus that combines cognitive behaviour therapy with sound-based tinnitus retraining therapy is significantly more effective than currently available ...
Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes
May 24, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
Infections may be deadly for many dialysis patients
An infection called peritonitis commonly arises in the weeks before many dialysis patients die, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). The findings sugges ...
Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes
May 24, 2012 |
not rated yet |
0
Travel to high altitudes tied to Crohn's, colitis flare-ups
(HealthDay) -- People with inflammatory bowel disease, which includes Crohn's disease and colitis, may be at increased risk for flare-ups when they fly or travel to high altitudes for skiing or mountain climbing, ...
Family history of Alzheimer's affects functional connectivity
(HealthDay) -- Cognitively normal individuals with a family history of late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) may display lower resting state functional connectivity in the default mode network (DMN) of the brain, ...
Transvaginal mesh op restores pelvic organ prolapse at price
(HealthDay) -- Transvaginal mesh (TVM) procedures are effective for anatomical restoration of pelvic organ prolapse (POP), but patients report a worsening of sexual function following surgery, according to ...
Skp2 activates cancer-promoting, glucose-processing Akt
HER2 and its epidermal growth factor receptor cousins mobilize a specialized protein to activate a major player in cancer development and sugar metabolism, scientists report in the May 25 issue of Cell.
Tongue analysis software uses ancient Chinese medicine to warn of disease
For 5,000 years, the Chinese have used a system of medicine based on the flow and balance of positive and negative energies in the body. In this system, the appearance of the tongue is one of the measures used to classify ...
Early physical therapist treatment associated with reduced risk of healthcare utilization and reduced overall healthcare
A new study published in Spine shows that early treatment by a physical therapist for low back pain (LBP), as compared to delayed treatment, was associated with reduced risk of subsequent healthcare utilization and lower ...
Oct 13, 2011
Rank: not rated yet