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Will Viruses Save Us From Superbugs?
For years, Ali Khodadoust walked around with his heart literally open to the world. In 2012 surgeons replaced his aortic arch and unknowingly planted bacteria. The bacteria secreted a sticky biofilm and burrowed a channel through his chest, creating a peephole to the open air.
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Ancient Chinese malaria remedy fights TB
A centuries-old herbal medicine, discovered by Chinese scientists and used to effectively treat malaria, has been found to potentially aid in the treatment of tuberculosis and may slow the evolution of drug resistance. In a promising study led by Robert Abramovitch, a Michigan State University microbiologist and TB expert, the ancient remedy artemisinin stopped the ability of TB-causing bacteria, known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, to become dormant. This stage of the disease often makes the use of antibiotics ineffective.
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Man’s best friend, bacteria’s worst enemy
Hospital ID badge dangling from his neck, Angus considered the empty bed in front of him. After a few strong sniffs, he moved on. Nearing the next bed, his floppy ears perked up before he stopped dead in his tracks, tapping his paw and eyeing his handler expectantly.
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Dividing Droplets Could Explain Life’s Origin
Researchers have discovered that simple “chemically active” droplets grow to the size of cells and spontaneously divide, suggesting they might have evolved into the first living cells. By Natalie Wolchover.
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Scientists move step closer to developing major new drug in fight against antimicrobial resistance
Scientists have for the first time determined the molecular structure of a new antibiotic which could hold the key to tackling drug resistant bacteria. The team at the University of Lincoln, UK, previously produced two synthetic derivatives of teixobactin – which has been hailed as a ‘game-changer’ in the fight against antimicrobial resistance – and the researchers have now become the first in the world to document the molecular make-up of the antibiotic.
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Diarrhea-causing Salmonella can be weaponized to flush out cancer
A notorious germ best known for getting people rushing to the bathroom may one day have cancer patients headed to clinics for a new treatment instead. With some genetic tweaking, Salmonella typhimurium transformed from a germ that causes mayhem in people’s intestines to one that can infiltrate deep into the bowels of tumors and spark immune system warfare.
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How One Of The World’s Toughest Creatures Can Bring Itself Back To Life
The tardigrade, a strange animal smaller than a grain of sand and with hooks for feet, can survive in a dried-up state for a decade. Its secret might help improve how drugs are shipped and stored. By Madeline K. Sofia.
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No More ‘Superbugs’? Maple Syrup Extract Enhances Antibiotic Action
Antibiotics save lives every day, but there is a downside to their ubiquity. High doses can kill healthy cells along with infection-causing bacteria, while also spurring the creation of “superbugs” that no longer respond to known antibiotics. Now, researchers may have found a natural way to cut down on antibiotic use without sacrificing health: a maple syrup extract that dramatically increases the potency of these medicines.
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Between a T. Rex’s Powerful Jaws, Bones of Its Prey Exploded
Paleontologists calculated the bite force of the fearsome prehistoric predators and provided more evidence that they were opportunistic scavengers. By Nicholas St. Fleur.
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A Mind Made Out of Silk
Spiders appear to offload information processing tasks to their webs, leading some to suggest that a mind can be located outside of the head. By Joshua Sokol.
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The Lunar Sea
The moon influences life in a surprising and subtle way: with its light. By Ferris Jabr.
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Quantum dots and antibiotics are a lethal combo for drug-resistant superbugs
Bacteria that are resistant to current antibiotics are a growing—and alarming—problem. A new solution comes from an unexpected place: light-activated chemicals that supercharge antibiotics so that bacteria cannot withstand them. Drug-resistant infections are a serious concern. Some strains of the bacteria Escherichia coli (more commonly known as E. coli), for example, have become resistant to drugs like carbapenem, usually considered antibiotics of last resort.
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Antibiotics have a new ally against superbugs
Nanoparticles weaken bacteria’s defenses, giving standard antibiotics a chance against drug-resistant infections. With antibiotic-resistant superbugs on the rise, the race is on to find new ways to treat patients with multiple-drug resistant infections. A research group at the University of Colorado is working on a promising solution: synthetic nanoparticles that lower superbugs’ defenses, rendering traditional antibiotics effective again.
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Supercharged antibiotics could defeat superbugs
An old drug boosted by University of Queensland researchers has been released as a new antibiotic that could terminate some of the world’s deadliest superbugs. The supercharge technique, directed by Dr. Mark Blaskovich and Professor Matt Cooper from UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), possibly could regenerate other antibiotics. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, superbugs, trigger 700,000 deaths globally every year, and a UK government review has foretold this number could rise to 10 million by 2050.
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"Game-changing" synthesized antibiotic successfully treats infections for the first time
Back in 2015, a team of scientists discovered an exciting new antibiotic called teixobactin. Now an international team of researchers has, for the first time, successfully synthesized the compound and used it to treat a bacterial infection in mice. This is an important milestone in the quest to develop a new antibiotic in the war against antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
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Artificial enzyme: Protein designed entirely from scratch functions in cells as a life-sustaining catalyst
A dawning field of research, artificial biology, is working toward creating a genuinely new organism. At Princeton, chemistry professor Michael Hecht and the researchers in his lab are designing and building proteins that can fold and mimic the chemical processes that sustain life. Their artificial proteins, encoded by synthetic genes, are approximately 100 amino acids long, using an endlessly varying arrangement of 20 amino acids.
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A Dangerous Antibiotic-Resistant Gene Has Spread The World. We Now Know Where It Started
We did this. By David Nield.
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Biologists Discover Pathway That Protects Mitochondria
MIT biologists have discovered the first cellular response targeted at helping mitochondria when their protein import goes wrong.
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He was dying. Antibiotics weren't working. Then doctors tried a forgotten treatment
Phages are making a comeback. By Maryn McKenna.
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Beating bacteria – looking beyond antibiotics
The standard treatment for a serious bacterial infection is a dose of antibiotics, which slow or halt the infection by hindering critical cellular processes within the bacteria. However, some bacteria have evolved devious mechanisms to protect themselves against antibiotics, for instance by producing enzymes that can destroy the antibiotic molecules, or by making themselves less permeable to the antibiotic.
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