Antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Failing antibiotics could lead to a future “dark age of medicine” where once-simple infections become lethal again. Scientists have now found a way to restore antibiotics to their former strength, by repurposing a drug developed to treat Alzheimer’s.

MRSA is an antibiotic resistant superbug often found infecting vulnerable hospital patients. Thought to have emerged as a result of excessive antibiotic use, a new study is suggesting a strain of MRSA actually first appeared 200 years ago in hedgehogs.

In a significant breakthrough, scientists have pinpointed signs of "pre-resistance" in bacteria for the first time, which they say could allow for better targeted therapies that nip superbugs in the bud before they develop resistance to drugs.

Modern medicine is locked in an arms race against antibiotic-resistant “superbugs.” A new treatment may give us the upper hand again by knocking out enzymes that bacteria use to defend themselves against the drugs.

Antibiotics were one of the most important inventions of the 20th century, but bacteria are developing resistance to them. Now researchers have shown that ultrashort pulses of laser light can kill bacteria and viruses, without harming human cells.

Researchers have isolated a compound from an Australian desert shrub with a long history of medicinal use by the Indigenous peoples of Australia that could help cancer patients better respond to chemotherapy.

Researchers have developed a new type of vaccine against urinary tract infections that has shown promise in tests in mice. The treatment uses a whole dead bacterial cell, wrapped in a protective cage, to trigger an immune response.

Pneumonia is usually treated with antibiotics, but bacteria are developing resistance to them. Now, NIH researchers have found a way to boost immune cells to eat the bacteria more effectively, potentially leading to a new pneumonia treatment.

Scientists may have found a way to re-enlist old antibiotics in the fight against superbugs. Gold nanoparticles were wrapped in molecules that seek out bacteria and disrupt their cell membranes, allowing existing drugs to kill them easier.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are poised to become a major health threat in the coming decades – but new antibiotics may have been inside us all along. A search algorithm has discovered dozens of potential antimicrobial peptides in the human body.

If a patient is infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, it's crucial that doctors are aware of the fact as soon as possible. There's where a recently-developed test is intended to come in, as it can detect such microbes in under 90 minutes.

By using a nanoscale needle tip to probe the intricate exterior structures of Escherichia coli, scientists have produced the sharpest images ever of living bacteria, which may help us better understand the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.