Immunology

Scientists at University College Cork have discovered that probiotic bacteria can protect against bacterial infection. The work was carried out in the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC) in UCC. The APC, funded by Science Foundation Ireland, was set up investigate the beneficial roles of the bacteria found in the gastro-intestine of healthy humans. The research group examined a range of beneficial bacteria and found one specific probiotic bacterium (Lactobacillus salivarius UCC118) which was able to kill Listeria monocytogenes, an often lethal pathogen in pregnant women. The probiotic kills…

A new test for diagnosing Tuberculosis offers a quick and simple alternative to existing three-day methods, according to research published today in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases. The study shows that the test, which involves taking three sputum samples from a patient over the course of one day, is just as effective as other more invasive and complicated testing methods, which take three days. For the new test, patients use a nebuliser to inhale salty water, or hypertonic saline, for twenty minutes. This enables them to produce sputum samples from deep inside the lungs. The…

Ugandan children who received the combination therapy of artemether-lumefantrine experienced a lower rate of treatment failure compared to other combination therapies, according to a study in the May 23/30 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on malaria. Malaria is one of the leading causes of death in children in Africa. One of the reasons the control of malaria has been difficult is because of increasing resistance to some drugs, leading to changes in antimalarial treatment recommendations, according to background information in the article. Combination therapies have replaced monotherapies as the…

Many school children in the United States memorize President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, considered one of history's most brilliant speeches and a model of brevity and persuasive rhetoric. But according to two medical researchers at University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, most historians have failed to recognize that when Lincoln delivered it on Nov. 19, 1863, he was in the early stages of a life-threatening illness — a serious form of smallpox. Their report appears in the current issue of Journal of Medical Biography, a scholarly quarterly published by the Royal Society…

Passive immunization through the development of fully human antibodies specific to Plasmodium falciparum may be effective at controlling the disease, report researchers led by Dr. Richard S. McIntosh from the University of Nottingham. The researchers developed these novel reagents by antibody repertoire cloning generated from immune Gambian adults. While it remains unclear if in vitro assays are predictive of functional immunity in humans, due to the lack of suitable animal models, according to this study antimalarial efficacy of human antibodies can be determined using rodent malaria…

The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002 was a loud wake-up call for researchers studying infectious diseases. SARS infected over 8,000 people, killed 10 percent of those infected, and weakened most with pneumonia. "The SARS outbreak was a strong reminder that new viruses can emerge, and whether new or old, pathogens can cause not only significant disease and death, but they can also have a global socioeconomic impact," said Brenda Hogue, an associate professor in the Biodesign Institute’s Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology and School of Life Sciences.…

Cerebral malaria (CM) is a severe form of malaria that affects the brain and is fatal in about 30-50% of the cases. But researchers in Portugal report a gene – Hmox1 – that protects against the disease by releasing CO into the host blood stream counteracting CM inflammatory processes (CO is known to have anti-inflammatory properties) and inhibiting the development of the infection in the brain. Maria M Mota, one of the leaders of the study believes that their results in mice will be relevant to treat human cerebral malaria and, supporting this idea, the protein produced by Hmox1 has already…

Collaborating with scientists in the United States and from around the world, Mengshi Lin, assistant professor of food science in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, has successfully used a new approach combining DNA sequencing technique with mid-infrared spectroscopy to rapidly and accurately identify Alicyclobacillus, a common bacterium found in apple, carrot, tomato, orange and pear juices, tropical fruit juices and juice blends. The bacterium won't cause human sickness, but it affects flavor and results in spoilage. Currently, a number of different testing methods are…

Scientists at CNRS and the Pasteur Institute, collaborating with physicians in Gabon, have just undertaken a study on cerebral malaria in children living in an endemic region. This study, which was published in PLoS ONE, should allow us to better understand this severe form of malaria which affects 20 to 40 percent of people infected by the Plasmodium falciparum parasite, and is fatal in 30 to 50 percent of cases. The study also provides a lead on how to perfect a diagnostic test, which should allow for better patient care. Cerebral malaria presents with a high fever and convulsions followed…

In 1928, Alexander Fleming opened the door to treating bacterial infections when he stumbled upon the first known antibiotic in a Penicillium mold growing in a discarded experiment. Nearly eight decades later, chemist Helen Blackwell and her research team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have devised a more deliberate method to tackle a newer bacterial conundrum - resistance to commonly used antibiotics. Early tests of their tool, called a "small-molecule macroarray," have already identified four promising new compounds with preliminary antibacterial activity comparable to that of some…