As harmful bacteria continue to become resistant to standard antibiotics, it gets increasingly important to come up with alternatives. With that in mind, scientists at MIT have looked to a species of wasp, and found an effective antibiotic in its venom.
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Essential oils are most commonly associated with aromatherapy and other alternative “medicines." Now a team at Johns Hopkins has found that some essential oils may have antibiotic properties, particularly against a persisting form of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.
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Scientists have discovered that a common antibiotic seems to help prevent the protein build-up associated with neurodegenerative diseases. The researchers found that roundworms treated with the drug minocycline had less protein aggregation in their cells and subsequently lived longer.
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Promising results from a phase 2 human trial into the efficacy of a novel new antibiotic is giving hope to scientists desperate to find a new weapon against the growing global threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
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What is the impact of antibiotic use on our gut bacteria, and how quickly does our microbiome recover? A new study has examined the regrowth in gut bacteria after major antibiotic interventions, revealing that while much of our microbiome does recover some species could be permanently eradicated.
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Bacteria continue to evolve resistance to our best drugs, but probiotics help keep bad bugs at bay. Now, MIT researchers have found a way to combine probiotics and antibiotic drugs into an uneasy alliance that seems to work better than either treatment alone.
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A cheap new diagnostic test from researchers at UC Berkeley promises to effectively identify antibiotic-resistant bacteria in just minutes from a urine sample. The test is currently being commercialized with a view on rolling it out into hospital and clinical settings as soon as possible.
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Not all pathogenic bacteria needs to evolve a variant to avoid destruction from antibiotics. A new study has revealed that some bacteria can effectively enter a state of hibernation, waiting for the effects to antibiotics to pass, resulting in persistent and chronic infections.
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The looming threat of drug-resistant bacteria is usually chalked up to overuse of antibiotics. But now, researchers have found that pharmaceutical compounds that aren’t antibiotic themselves can also contribute to the rise of superbugs, including antidepressants like Prozac.
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With bacteria rapidly evolving resistance to our best antibiotics, scientists are searching high and low for new ones. Researchers have now found that a potent peptide normally used for digestion has strong antimicrobial effects, and could form the base of new drugs.
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