Bacteria in Gums Use Growth Molecules from Neighbors to Survive by Angela Mohan on January 6, 2021 at 12:28 PM
Veillonella parvula bacteria engage in a one-sided relationship with pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis, helping the germ multiply and cause gum disease, according to a new University at Buffalo-led study.
P. gingivalis borrows growth molecules from V. parvula, a common yet harmless bacteria in the mouth whose growth is not population dependent.
In a healthy mouth, P. gingivalis makes up a miniscule amount of the bacteria in the oral microbiome and cannot replicate. But if dental plaque is allowed to grow unchecked due to poor oral hygiene, V. parvula will multiply and eventually produce enough growth molecules to also spur the reproduction of P. gingivalis.
New Group of Antibiotics Active Against Various Bacteria by Angela Mohan on December 24, 2020 at 11:00 AM
Nature, by Wistar Institute scientists. We took a creative, double-pronged strategy to develop new molecules that can kill difficult-to-treat infections while enhancing the natural host immune response, said Farokh Dotiwala, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Vaccine & Immunotherapy Center and lead author of the effort to identify a new generation of antimicrobials named dual-acting immuno-antibiotics (DAIAs).
Current antibiotics target nucleic acid and protein synthesis, building of the cell membrane, and metabolic pathways. But, bacteria can acquire drug resistance by modifying the bacterial target or by inactivating the drugs or pumping them out.
by Karishma Abhishek on December 22, 2020 at 10:51 PM
COVID-19 causing coronaviruses have protein spikes on their surfaces that help the virus bind with the host receptors cells - first step of infection. Scientists have decoded the first detailed images of those spikes in their natural state, while still attached to the virus using cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and computation techniques as per a study published in the journal Quarterly Reviews Biophysics Discovery.
This serves as the critical step in designing therapeutic drugs and vaccines against the virus. The advantage of doing it this way is that when you purify a spike protein and study it in isolation, you lose important biological context: How does it look in an intact virus particle? It could possibly have a different structure there, says Wah Chiu, a professor at DOE s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University and senior author of the study.
Zika Virus Affects Fetal Eye Development During Pregnancy but Not After Birth by Iswarya on December 21, 2020 at 12:33 PM
Zika infection during the first trimester of pregnancy can affect fetal retinal development and cause congenital ocular anomalies; however, the virus does not appear to affect ocular growth postnatally, according to a new study. The findings of the study are published in the journal
JCI Insight.
While the SARS-CoV-2 virus has dominated the news this past year, researchers continue to study the health effects of the Zika virus, which has been reported in 86 countries globally.
The Zika virus is primarily transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito from the Aedes genus. However, it can also be passed through sexual contact, blood transfusions, organ transplants, and between mother and baby during pregnancy. The virus has been documented to cause a range of birth defects, including microcephaly and various neurological, musculoskeleta