Antibiotic

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.

Scientists are reporting successful preclinical tests of a nasal spray designed to prevent the neurodegeneration associated with dementia. The spray combines two cheap drugs and was found to improve cognitive function in several mouse models of dementia.

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.

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.

Sometimes, viruses can help us. According to a new study, a combination of antibiotics and a bacteria-killing virus eradicates harmful bacteria better than either one is capable of doing on its own.

Chronic wounds such as skin ulcers can be difficult to treat, partially because of antibiotic-resistant "biofilms" that form over the affected tissue. A new type of microneedle patch, however, has been shown to deliver medication through such films.

Antibiotics may work, but they drive bacteria to evolve into new drug-resistant forms. Now a new study has uncovered a mechanism that could make the bugs non-infectious without killing them, reducing the evolutionary pressure that leads to superbugs.

Bacteria have a nasty ability to rapidly evolve, allowing them to evade antibiotics in short order. But now, scientists at UC San Diego have used evolution against them, by “training” bacteria-killing viruses to anticipate their next moves.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, or “superbugs,” pose one of the most dangerous looming threats to public health. Now, researchers have found a new potential weakness in some of the worst strains, which makes them choke on their own toxic molecules.