TB-causing bacteria remember prior stress, react quickly to new stress
HOUSTON – (Feb. 22, 2021) -Tuberculosis bacteria have evolved to remember stressful encounters and react quickly to future stress, according to a study by computational bioengineers at Rice University and infectious disease experts at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School (NJMS).
Oleg Igoshin (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)
Published online in the open-access journal mSystems, the research identifies a genetic mechanism that allows the TB-causing bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, to respond to stress rapidly and in manner that is “history-dependent,” said corresponding author Oleg Igoshin, a professor of bioengineering at Rice.
Researchers have long suspected that the ability of TB bacteria to remain dormant, sometimes for decades, stems from their ability to behave based upon past experience.
Human monoclonal antibodies can act as a substitute for traditional antibiotics
In the course of a new and groundbreaking study, led by Dr, Natalia Freund and the doctoral candidate Avia Waston at the Sackler Medical Faculty, the research group succeeded in isolating monoclonal antibodies, which hindered the growth of tuberculosis germs in laboratory mice. The antibodies were isolated from a patient who had succumbed to active tuberculosis disease but had since recovered.
This is, in fact, the first time in history that researchers have managed to develop a biological antibiotic and demonstrate that human monoclonal antibodies can act as a substitute for the traditional chemical antibiotics and protect mice from pathogenic bacterial challenge. The study was carried out in a collaboration with two additional laboratories from the US and China and was published in the prestigious scientific journal
Mažėjantis tuberkulioze sergančių skaičius galimai tik iliuzija: laisvėjant karantinui, daugėja uždelstų formų lrt.lt - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lrt.lt Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
New biomarker predicts individual anti-tuberculosis treatment duration
When can tuberculosis therapy be stopped without risk of relapse? Doctors are faced with this question time and again, because the lack of detection of the tuberculosis pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis is no guarantee for a permanent cure of the lung infection.
Patients who respond to the standard therapy may be out of treatment after six months. But for resistant cases, more than 18 months of treatment duration is currently advised. This is a very long time for those affected, who often have to take more than four antibiotics every day and suffer from side effects , explains Prof. Dr. Christoph Lange, Clinical Director at the Research Center Borstel and director of the study, conducted at the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) in cooperation with the German Center for Lung Research (DZL). We urgently need a biomarker that enables the implementation of an individualized treatment duration, he emph
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