Researchers at EPFL reveal how Drosophila's Turandot proteins protect against immune self-harm. The study is the first to identify some proteins that protect against antimicrobial peptides offering insights into cellular ...
Mar 26, 2024
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A person's age, sex and location are correlated with the chance that they have a bloodstream infection that is resistant to antibiotics, according to a new study published in PLOS Medicine by Gwenan Knight of the London School ...
Mar 14, 2024
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A new study describes the use of phage therapy to eradicate multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in a living organism (in vivo) with important new implications for antibiotic resistance.
Feb 21, 2024
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Tomato juice can kill Salmonella Typhi and other bacteria that can harm people's digestive and urinary tract health, according to research published in Microbiology Spectrum. S. Typhi is a deadly human-specific pathogen that ...
Jan 30, 2024
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The prevention and management of antimicrobial resistance (AMR)—a major global health threat—and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) remain a challenge, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. To better combat antimicrobial ...
Jan 5, 2024
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Over 1.05 million deaths were associated with antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and 250,000 deaths were attributable to AMR in the WHO African region, posing an unprecedented health threat. That's according to a new study published ...
Dec 20, 2023
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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the World Health Organization's most urgent health challenges for the next decade. While AMR is a global threat, a tale of two worlds emerges, highlighting the heightened vulnerability ...
Dec 12, 2023
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Antimicrobial resistance is one of the biggest global threats to health, food security and development. This month, The Conversation's experts explore how we got here and the potential solutions.
Nov 24, 2023
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Misuse of antibiotics is denting their efficacy and spawning resistant bacteria which could be responsible for 10 million deaths worldwide by 2050, the World Health Organization warned Thursday.
Nov 23, 2023
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Each year antimicrobial resistance—the ability of microbes to survive agents designed to kill them— claims more lives than malaria and HIV/Aids combined. Africa bears the brunt of this development, which thrives on inequality ...
Nov 21, 2023
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An antimicrobial is a substance that kills or inhibits the growth of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, or protozoans, as well as destroying viruses. Antimicrobial drugs either kill microbes (microbicidal) or prevent the growth of microbes (microbistatic). Disinfectants are antimicrobial substances used on non-living objects.
The history of antimicrobials begins with the observations of Pasteur and Joubert, who discovered that one type of bacteria could prevent the growth of another. They did not know at that time that the reason one bacterium failed to grow was that the other bacterium was producing an antibiotic. Technically, antibiotics are only those substances that are produced by one microorganism that kill, or prevent the growth, of another microorganism. Of course, in today's common usage, the term antibiotic is used to refer to almost any drug that cures a bacterial infection. Antimicrobials include not just antibiotics, but synthetically formed compounds as well.
The discovery of antimicrobials like penicillin and tetracycline paved the way for better health for millions around the world. Before 1941, the year penicillin was discovered, no true cure for gonorrhea, strep throat, or pneumonia existed. Patients with infected wounds often had to have a wounded limb removed, or face death from infection. Now, most of these infections can be cured easily with a short course of antimicrobials.
However, the future effectiveness of antimicrobial therapy is somewhat in doubt. Microorganisms, especially bacteria, are becoming resistant to more and more antimicrobial agents. Bacteria found in hospitals appear to be especially resilient, and are causing increasing difficulty for the sickest patients–those in the hospital. Currently, bacterial resistance is combated by the discovery of new drugs. However, microorganisms are becoming resistant more quickly than new drugs are being made available; thus, future research in antimicrobial therapy may focus on finding how to overcome resistance to antimicrobials, or how to treat infections with alternative means, such as species-specific phages.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
