News tagged with drug resistance

Genome sequencing provides unprecedented insight into causes of pneumococcal disease

A new study led by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK has, for the first time, used genome sequencing technology to track the changes in a bacterial population ...

Genetics created May 05, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Lift weights to lower blood sugar? White muscle helps keep blood glucose levels under control

Researchers in the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan have challenged a long-held belief that whitening of skeletal muscle in diabetes is harmful.

Medical research created Apr 07, 2013 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Unchecked antibiotic use in animals may affect global human health

The increasing production and use of antibiotics, about half of which is used in animal production, is mirrored by the growing number of antibiotic resistance genes, or ARGs, effectively reducing antibiotics' ability to fend ...

Medical research created Feb 11, 2013 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Study finds mutations linked to relapse of childhood leukemia

After an intensive three-year hunt through the genome, medical researchers have pinpointed mutations that leads to drug resistance and relapse in the most common type of childhood cancer—the first time anyone has linked ...

Genetics created Feb 03, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Tuberculosis may lurk in bone marrow stem cells of infected patients, researchers say

Tuberculosis is a devastating disease that kills nearly 2 million people worldwide each year. Although antibiotics exist that can ameliorate the symptoms, the courses of therapy last for months and don't completely eradicate ...

Medical research created Jan 30, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study: Most-used diabetes drug works in different way than previously thought

A team, led by senior author Morris J. Birnbaum, MD, PhD, the Willard and Rhoda Ware Professor of Medicine, with the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism, Perelman School of Medicine, University ...

Diabetes created Jan 06, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

MicroRNAs can convert normal cells into cancer promoters

Unraveling the mechanism that ovarian cancer cells use to change normal cells around them into cells that promote tumor growth has identified several new targets for treatment of this deadly disease.

Cancer created Nov 21, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Low cost pain drug can kill resistant tuberculosis

An off-patent anti-inflammatory drug that costs around two cents for a daily dose in developing countries has been found by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College to kill both replicating and non-replicating drug resistant ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created Sep 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Low cost pain drug can kill resistant tuberculosis

An off-patent anti-inflammatory drug that costs around two cents for a daily dose in developing countries has been found by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College to kill both replicating and non-replicating drug resistant ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created Sep 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Mathematical model helps design efficient multi-drug therapies

For years, doctors treating those with HIV have recognized a relationship between how faithfully patients take the drugs they prescribe, and how likely the virus is to develop drug resistance. More recently, research has ...

Medical research created Sep 02, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New drug candidate shows promise against cancer

Drugs containing platinum are among the most powerful and widely used cancer drugs. However, such drugs have toxic side effects, and cancer cells can eventually become resistant to them.

Cancer created Jul 11, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Tumor microenvironment helps skin cancer cells resist drug treatment

One of cancer's most frightening characteristics is its ability to return after treatment. In the case of many forms of cancer, including the skin cancer known as melanoma, tailored drugs can eradicate cancer cells in the ...

Cancer created Jul 04, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Apramycin shows promise against drug-resistant TB and other 'superbugs,' without hearing loss

The world needs new antibiotics to overcome the ever increasing resistance of disease-causing bacteria – but it doesn't need the side effect that comes with some of the most powerful ones now available: ...

Medical research created Jun 11, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Novel method combats malaria drug resistance

Researchers from the University of Notre Dame's Eck Institute for Global Health developed a "gene chip" to contribute to the identification of malaria drug resistance, an effort that will allow for real-time response in modified ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created Apr 05, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Artemisinin-resistant untreatable malaria increasing rapidly along the Thailand-Myanmar border: study

Evidence that the most deadly species of malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, is becoming resistant to the front line treatment for malaria on the border of Thailand and Myanmar (Burma) is reported in The ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created Apr 05, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Drug resistance

Drug resistance is the reduction in effectiveness of a drug in curing a disease or improving a patient's symptoms. When the drug is not intended to kill or inhibit a pathogen, then the term is equivalent to dosage failure or drug tolerance. More commonly, the term is used in the context of diseases caused by pathogens.

Pathogens are said to be drug-resistant when drugs meant to neutralize them have reduced effect. When an organism is resistant to more than one drug, it is said to be multidrug resistant.

Drug resistance is an example of evolution in microorganisms. Individuals that are not susceptible to the drug effects are capable of surviving drug treatment, and therefore have greater fitness than susceptible individuals. By the process of natural selection, drug resistant traits are selected for in subsequent offspring, resulting in a population that is drug resistant.

For more information about Drug resistance, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.