New approach for antibiotic development

Researchers find mechanism against dreaded hospital germ

17-May-2024 - The opportunistic bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa is dangerous due to its resistance to multiple antibiotics. A research team from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) and Jülich Research Center (Forschungszentrum Jülich – FZJ) has now found a mechanism that makes it possible to ...

Finding new weapons in Nature`s battlesites

Genomic studies open up a wealth of bioactive small molecules in insect-killing bacteria

27-Apr-2022 - Interactions between microbes and other organisms are mediated by a plethora of small molecules, also called natural products. A research team led by Dr. Yi-Ming Shi and Prof. Helge Bode from the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology has now performed a systematic analysis of ...

New Tools Against Hospital Infections?

Encapsulated peptide blocks communication and virulence of resistant Staphylococcus

25-Apr-2022 - Antibiotic-resistant hospital pathogens are not to be underestimated as a health risk. A research team has now introduced a new approach for treating multiple-drug resistant Staphylococcus in the journal Angewandte Chemie. It is based on a synthetic peptide that reduces the virulence of the ...

Sugar Exposes Bacteria

How biologists and chemists from Israel and Germany make potentially dangerous bacteria visible

18-May-2021 - How can virulent bacteria be detected? The answer is: with sugar, or more precisely, with modified sugar. This is used in a new method developed by a German-Israeli team: chemist Professor Daniel B. Werz of TU Braunschweig and Professor Micha Fridman of Tel Aviv University, whose group ...

Body cells spy out bacteria

The aryl-hydrocarbon receptor detects when bacteria increase so much in number that they become a danger to the body

23-Dec-2019 - Bacterial infection does not automatically lead to illness; many germs only become dangerous when they occur in large numbers. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin have discovered that the body has a receptor, which doesn’t recognize bacteria themselves, but ...

Virulence factor of the influenza A virus mapped in real-time

22-May-2019 - The influenza A viruses, which have instigated deadly pandemics in the past, still remain a major global public health problem until today. Molecules known as virulence factors are produced by bacteria, viruses, and fungi to help them to infect host cells. One of virulence factors found in the ...

New diagnostic tool aids quality control in xenotransplantations

Bacterial protein recognises immunogenic sugar molecules on pig cells

05-Dec-2017 - Sugars are highly important molecules for all life. They convey vital signals, and thus participate in manifold biological processes (e.g. determination of blood-types and the formation of bacterial biofilms). Sugars are often recognized by specialized proteins called lectins. Researchers at the ...

Membrane vesicles released by bacteria may play different roles during infection

18-Sep-2017 - Bacteria release membrane-derived vesicles (MVs), which are small particles that can transport virulence factors to neighbouring bacteria or to the cells of a mammalian host. This special MV-based system for delivering toxic proteins and nucleic acids in a protected manner to the target cells may ...

Controlling bacteria's necessary evil

12-May-2017 - Microbes are everywhere -- on every surface, every object, every plant and animal. Yes, including on and inside you. True, some of them cause disease. Wait -- don't reach for the hand sanitizer just yet. Many of them are co-residents in our bodies, providing beneficial services in exchange for ...

DNA markers distinguish between harmless, deadly bacteria

21-Dec-2016 - The virulent pathogen that causes the disease tularemia, or "rabbit fever," was weaponized during past world wars and is considered a potential bioweapon. Through a new study of the coccobacillus Francisella, Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers are working to use DNA markers to discern ...