Scientists from the University of Birmingham and Norwich Research Park have discovered a link between a major mechanism of antibiotic resistance and resistance to the disinfectant triclosan which is commonly found in domestic ...
Jul 3, 2017
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Scientists at Scripps Research have developed molecules that can remodel the bacterial population of intestines to a healthier state and they have shown—through experiments in mice—that this reduces cholesterol levels ...
Jun 15, 2020
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A new study suggests that triclosan, an antimicrobial and antifungal agent found in many consumer products ranging from hand soaps to toys and even toothpaste, can rapidly disrupt bacterial communities found in the gut.
May 18, 2016
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An ECDC study estimates the burden of five types of infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria of public health concern in the European Union and in the European Economic Area (EU/EEA). The burden of disease is measured ...
Nov 7, 2018
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Scientists have found that a strain of yeast implicated in inflammatory skin conditions, including eczema, can be killed by certain peptides and could potentially provide a new treatment for these debilitating skin conditions. ...
Nov 23, 2011
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The global emergence of antimicrobial resistance threatens therapies that combat bacterial pathogens. Resistance genes detected in city sewage may serve as a proxy for the resistance burden of their urban populations. Professor ...
Aug 1, 2017
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Manuka honey could be an efficient way to clear chronically infected wounds and could even help reverse bacterial resistance to antibiotics, according to research presented at the Society for General Microbiology's Spring ...
Apr 13, 2011
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Is the end of HIV near? Findings published this week in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy report that a novel, subdermal implant delivering potent antiretroviral (ARV) drugs shows extreme promise in stopping the spread ...
Apr 28, 2015
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A 14-year-old Texas girl was finally cured of an oft-fatal emerging disease when doctors amputated her lower leg, where the infection arose, after various antimicrobials proved ineffective. The culprit was Pythium insidiosum, ...
Apr 17, 2012
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Bacterial load was significantly higher in pancreatic tumor samples from patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma compared with pancreatic tissue from normal individuals, and in studies using mice, eliminating certain ...
Mar 22, 2018
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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
