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Combining tamoxifen, the world’s most prescribed breast cancer agent, with a compound found in the flowering plant feverfew may prevent initial or future resistance to the drug, say researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. The finding, reported online Feb…

A new paper in the February 17th edition of the journal Molecular Cell describes how exposure to low levels of antibiotics increases mutations in E. coli and Staphylococcus bacteria hundreds of times more than normal, making the creation of drug-resistant strains more likely…

Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) researchers have found a way to reverse resistance to sunitinib, a treatment that is currently the first line of defense against clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), a deadly form of kidney cancer. Most patients who show a positive response to sunitinib develop a resistance to the drug after one year of treatment…

According to a new study, sepsis and pneumonia, two common conditions caused by hospital-aquired infections like MRSA, killed 48,000 Americans in 2006, and cost the nation over 8 billion dollars to treat…

Investigators at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston examined for the first time the long-term response to strep throat on a genome-wide level, shedding light on how group A streptococcus interacts with the patient’s immune system and attempts to circumvent it. Results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)…

MRSA Survivors Network, the nonprofit and official organization for World MRSA Day has announced the theme for 2010: “The MRSA Epidemic- A Call to Action…

Toxin Does Not Affect MRSA-Induced Pneumonia A group led by Dr. James M. Musser at the Center for Molecular and Translational Human Infectious Diseases Research of The Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston, Texas has demonstrated that the cytotoxin Paton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) does not affect methicillin-resistant Staphlococcus aureus (MRSA)-induced pneumonia…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Prevnar 13, a pneumococcal 13-valent conjugate vaccine for infants and young children ages 6 weeks through 5 years. Prevnar 13 will be the successor to Prevnar, the pneumococcal 7-valent conjugate vaccine licensed by the FDA in 2000 to prevent invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) and otitis media…

Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) announced that the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has recommended the use of Prevnar 13™ (Pneumococcal 13-valent Conjugate Vaccine [Diphtheria CRM197 Protein]) for healthy children aged 2 months through 59 months for the prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease…

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) most commonly affects children, in whom there is an overall cure rate of 85%. A strong predictor of poor outcome is resistance to chemotherapy with glucocorticoids. Such resistance is caused, at least in part, by an inability of the leukemic cells to die by a process known as mitochondrial apoptosis…

A University academic who left school early with dreams of being a rock star has been recognised for his internationally outstanding work in microbiology and his studies into the social lifestyle of the opportunistic bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa – the leading cause of death in Cystic Fibrosis patients and an important cause of hospital acquired infections…

MicroPhage announced that it has submitted human data from a pivotal clinical study of its ‘Microphage MRSA/MSSA Blood Culture Test’ to support a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) premarket notification process. The first of MicroPhage’s instrument-free, rapid tests is based on the Company’s patented Bacteriophage Amplification platform technology…

Accelr8 Technology Corporation (NYSE Amex: AXK) announced that it has received acceptance to present results for a study on 2-hour, culture-free, quantitative pathogen identification. The study was co-authored with principal investigators at the Denver Health Medical Center and the Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis…

A new Queensland Government Fellowship presented today by the Governor of Queensland will be used by a researcher to try to combat an extreme super bug even more aggressive than resistant Staphylococcus strains…

A team of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has identified two compounds that act on novel binding sites for an enzyme used by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS…

A study released on Monday found that between 26 percent and 44 percent of artemisinin-based malaria drugs sold in Madagascar, Senegal and Uganda “failed quality testing” because of impurities or insufficient amounts of active ingredient, the Associated Press reports. The study, which was conducted by the nongovernmental U.S…

The first results from a large-scale study of key antimalarial medicines in ten Sub-Saharan African countries reveal that a high percentage of medicines circulating on national markets are of substandard quality and thus may contribute to the growth of drug-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum, the most virulent form of malaria…

For years, doctors have warned patients to finish their antibiotic prescriptions or risk a renewed infection by a “superbug” that can mount a more powerful defense against the same drug…

Multidrug resistant bacteria such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) pose a major problem for patients, doctors, and the pharmaceutical industry. To combat such bacteria, it is critical to understand how resistance is developed in the first place…

Researchers report that they have discovered – and now know how to exploit – an unusual chemical reaction mechanism that allows malaria parasites and many disease-causing bacteria to survive. The research team, from the University of Illinois, also has developed the first potent inhibitor of this chemical reaction. The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences…

Staying in a multi-bed hospital room dramatically increases the risk of acquiring a serious infectious disease, Queen’s University researchers have discovered. A new study led by infectious diseases expert Dr. Dick Zoutman says the chance of acquiring serious infections like C. difficile (Clostridium difficile) rises with the addition of every hospital roommate…

Neisseria meningitidis, the meningococcus, is a bacterium that can cause diseases with high fatality rates, and there has therefore been considerable concern that, like other bacteria, it might become resistant to antibiotics…

Reuters examines efforts to control tuberculosis in China, which has the “world’s second largest tuberculosis burden after India.” The news service writes, “China has 4.5 million TB cases currently; and each year 1.4 million people fall ill with the disease. TB killed 160,000 people in China in 2008, according to the World Health Organization…

MicroPhage announced that it has obtained its CE Mark to market in Europe the first of its instrument-free, rapid tests based on its patented Bacteriophage Amplification technology…

Patients who experience dermatologic toxic effects from epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors (EGFRIs) have a high prevalence of skin and nail infections, according to a new study published online December 9 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute…

A new antibody-drug compound shrank or halted the growth of metastatic breast tumors in almost half of a group of patients whose HER2-positive cancer had become resistant to standard therapies, according to early data from a multicenter Phase 2 clinical trial led by a Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researcher…

A new drug cocktail might be the right mix to fight breast cancer after it becomes resistant to standard therapy. Details of a new study supporting this approach suggest it’s possible to re-sensitize tumors thus allowing treatments to work again. The findings were presented at the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium…

A new MRSA objective will focus progress on Trusts that need to improve the most, Health Minister Ann Keen announced yesterday. From April 2010, the MRSA objective will be applied to all NHS organisations to ensure patients receive clean safe care across the whole NHS…

Pomegranates have already been hailed as a super-food but a team of scientists from Kingston University in South West London has found a new use for the deep red fruit. The team, led by Professor Declan Naughton, has discovered that the rind can be turned into an ointment for treating MRSA and other common hospital infections…

A new study led by a team of researchers at New York Medical College suggests that that medical liability concerns may be playing a role in the increase of MRSA in healthcare settings by encouraging clinicians to prescribe antibiotics more often and more broadly than clinical circumstances and evidence-based guidelines warrant. The study appeared in the American Journal of Therapeutics…

New Nasal Vaccine Blocks Parasite Transmission to Mosquitoes An experiemental nasally administered malaria vaccine prevented parasite transmission from infected mice to mosquitoes and could play an important role in the fight against human malaria. The researchers from Japan report their findings in the December 2009 issue of the journal Infection and Immunity…

The often feared and sometimes deadly infections caused by MRSA – methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus – are now moving out of hospitals and emerging as an even more virulent strain in community settings and on athletic teams, and raising new concerns about antibiotic resistance…

An estimated 25,000 Americans develop severe fungal infections each year, leading to 10,000 deaths despite the use of anti-fungal drugs. The associated cost to the U.S. health care system has been estimated at $1 billion a year. Now two Syracuse University scientists have developed new brominated furanones that exhibit powerful anti-fungal properties…

A new study reports a surge in drug-resistant strains of a dangerous type of bacteria in US hospitals: Acinetobacter strikes patients in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and others and often causes severe pneumonias or bloodstream infection, some of which are now resistant to imipenem, an antibiotic that is reserved for last-line treatment…

GlobalPost examines antibiotic resistance and overprescribing in China. The country “has high rates of antibiotic resistance and a health care system that provides strong financial incentives for over-prescribing antibiotics. Now the central government is taking measures to change that. Stockpiling antibiotics at home is a common practice among Chinese households…

Using disinfectants could help superbug bacteria become resistant not only to the disinfectant itself but to antibiotics, even if they have not been exposed to them, according to a new study from Ireland: the findings could be important step in the fight to prevent superbugs spreading in hospitals…

The first known case of a patient with an extremely drug resistant form of tuberculosis in the US came to light recently when the Associated Press (AP) media agency reported the plight of a 21 year old Peruvian man Oswaldo Juarez, who arrived in the US two years ago to study English and then found himself spending most of that time fighting for his life as he underwen…

Staphylococcus aureus causes far more serious infections than previously realised, with more than 3,000 Swedes affected every year, reveals a thesis from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden…

The Associated Press reports on how the misuse of drugs worldwide has contributed to drug-resistant diseases in a series of articles following a six-month investigation by the news service. The AP examines growing resistance to HIV drugs: “Ten years ago, between 1 percent and 5 percent of HIV patients worldwide had drug resistant strains…

U.S. H1N1 Response Highlights Need For Improvements “[D]espite the tireless efforts of public health and health-care workers, America’s experience with H1N1 shows that the nation is not prepared to deal with a flu pandemic,” former Democratic Senator Bob Graham and former Republican Senator Jim Talent write in Washington Post opinion piece that examines U.S…

MicroPhage announced that it has obtained its CE Mark to market in Europe the first of its instrument-free, rapid tests based on its patented Bacteriophage Amplification technology…

UMF Corporation, a leader in developing high-performance infection-prevention products, announced today the introduction of Micrillon®, the first patented and rechargeable antimicrobial-polymer chemistry developed to help combat healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) – infections that are picked up by patients during hospital stays. According to the U.S…

Three papers scheduled for publication in the January issue of the Journal of Hospital Infection, published by Elsevier, suggest that copper might have a role in the fight against healthcare-associated infections. In a busy Birmingham teaching hospital, researchers swapped a conventional toilet seat, tap-handles and a ward door push-plate for similar items made from 70% copper…

In this week´s The Lancet, an editorial supports the recent calls for a universal effort in developing new antibiotics. It reports that prospects for replacing current antimicrobial drugs are reduced…

New evidence-based recommendations developed by the Surgical Infection Society to guide physicians in the diagnosis and management of complicated skin and soft tissue infections have been published in Surgical Infections, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Surgical Infections is the Official Journal of the Surgical Infection Society (SIS) and SIS-Europe…

Following recent reports of clusters of Tamiflu resistance, the WHO on Wednesday recommended that patients with severely weakened immune systems who become infected with the H1N1 (swine flu) virus receive additional antiviral treatment as needed throughout the duration of their illness, Agence France-Presse reports…

An antibiotic that binds to a well-established target in a novel and unexpected way could be the inspiration for designing new, more potent antibacterial drugs. “A completely new way to beat bacteria is an exciting find at a time when resistance to existing antibiotics is growing,” said Professor Tony Maxwell from the John Innes Centre, lead author on the research to be published in Science…

Most scientists believe that staph infections are caused by many bacterial cells that signal each other to emit toxins. The signaling process is called quorum sensing because many bacteria must be present to start the process…

The WHO is looking into reports that patients with “severely suppressed immune systems” in Britain and the U.S. developed resistance to Tamiflu, which is used to treat the symptoms of H1N1 (swine flu), a spokesman for the organization said Tuesday, Reuters reports.

MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) and other drug-resistant bacteria could face annihilation as low-temperature plasma prototype devices have been developed to offer safe, quick, easy and unfailing bactericidal cocktails. Two prototype devices have been developed: one for efficient disinfection of healthy skin (e.g.