Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - [Homestead] More back to the future in healthcare

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] More back to the future in healthcare
  • Date: Mon, 08 Nov 2004 09:54:56 -0800

Phages came before antibiotics---they were not well understood so their efficacy was not reliable, but a hell of a lot better than doing nothing---or praying, which is certainly doing nothing

News in Science <http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/default.htm>

*News in Science <http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/default.htm>*

*News in Science - Blasting bugs without antibiotics - 02/11/2004 *

[This is the print version of story
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1232769.htm]


Blasting bugs without antibiotics

Maggie Fox
Reuters

Tuesday, 2 November 2004 Bacteria
Bug busting: maybe harnessing a bug's own natural survival mechanism
is the key to fighting infection /(Image: iStockphoto)/

Pitting one germ against the other is behind at least two new
methods of fighting infection without antibiotics, a U.S. meeting
has heard.

One method uses deadly enzymes, made by viruses called
bacteriophages, which precisely execute bacteria. Another uses
compounds made by one bacteria to shut down another without actually
killing it.

Each illustrates potential new ways to fight the growing problem of
superbugs, bacteria that have mutated to resist most or all
antibiotics used against them.

The methods might also work against biological agents such as
anthrax, the researchers told a meeting sponsored by the American
Society for Microbiology <http://www.asm.org/>.

A single squirt of the bacteria-killing enzyme may keep an infected
person from sneezing out bacteria for up to a week, said Dr Vincent
Fischetti of Rockefeller University <http://www.rockefeller.edu/> in
New York.

"These are enzymes that, basically, punch a hole in the bacteria and
cause them to explode," Fischetti said.

They have used them to decontaminate animals of bacteria such as
Group A streptococci and staphylococci.

"We can eliminate these organisms from the noses of these animals,"
Fischetti said.

They also tried it intravenously against the anthrax bacillus.

"We could save 90% of the animals with a single dose of the enzyme,"
said Fischetti, whose work is funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency <http://www.darpa.mil/>.

The researchers are planning tests in mice, monkeys and perhaps
rabbits and will use the results to seek permission to test the
enzyme for safety in humans.

New U.S. Food and Drug Administration <http://www.fda.gov/> rules
allow researchers to test drugs against potential biological agents
in two animal species, as there is no ethical way to test them in
people.

"These enzymes work instantly," Fischetti said, and could be sprayed
into the nose in a saline buffer.

And he said there was no evidence, yet, that bacteria can develop
mutations that will allow them to evade these enzymes.

*Using bugs to blast bugs*

Dr Richard Novick and colleagues at New York University
<http://www.nyu.edu/>'s medical school looked specifically for ways
to stop bacteria from attaching to and killing cells in the body.

They found peptides, short pieces of proteins, regulate this behaviour.

"We happen to have hit on one of these that provides an Achilles
heel of the organism," Novick said.

"We can disarm the organism ... simply by introducing one of these
inhibitory factors."

The first three hours are critical for infecting bacteria to get a
foothold, Novick said. The peptide holds the bacteria in check just
long enough to give immune system cells time to get there and
destroy the invaders.

The peptide, called auto-inducing peptide, affects signalling within
the bacteria.

/Staphylococcus aureus/, one of the worst causes of infections
caught in hospitals, have evolved into four different strains, each
with a different version of this peptide.

"Remarkably and conveniently for us, the peptide produced by any one
of the subspecies blocks activation of the virulence response by any
of the others," Novick said.

They created a version of the peptide in the lab that blocks all
four and are now trying to improve it so it works even more broadly
and lasts longer.


Related Stories

Antibacterial soap won't cut infections, News in Science 2 Mar 2004
<http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1056419.htm>
Gene swap led to superbug, News in Science 28 Nov 2003
<http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/health/HealthRepublish_999126.htm>
Bacteria cures ear infection, News in Science 31 Jan 2001
<http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s239250.htm>


© 2004 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Copyright information: http://abc.net.au/common/copyrigh.htm
Privacy information: http://abc.net.au/privacy.htm





  • [Homestead] More back to the future in healthcare, Tvoivozhd, 11/08/2004

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page