News tagged with drug resistance

Medical treatments from 200 miles up

In the hunt for cancer treatments, researchers have had some help from higher authorities -- way higher. The International Space Station, orbiting the Earth at more than 200 miles in the sky, houses scientific ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 28, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Functional genomics gets tiny

A little more than a decade ago, researchers discovered an ancient mechanism that cells use to silence genes. Like a dimmer switch turning down a light, RNA interference (RNAi) dials down gene activity in ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 17, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

FDA wants limits on antibiotics given to animals

(AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration called on drug companies Wednesday to help limit the use of antibiotics given to farm animals, a decades-old practice that scientists say has contributed to a surge in dangerous, ...

Biology / Other

created Apr 11, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

'Nanobubbles' plus chemotherapy equals single-cell cancer targeting

Using light-harvesting nanoparticles to convert laser energy into "plasmonic nanobubbles," researchers at Rice University, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Apr 09, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Nanoparticle-delivered RNA interference drug stops head and neck cancer growth

(Phys.org) -- A nanoparticle drug delivery vehicle for small interfering RNA molecules (siRNA), that is already being tested in human clinical trials, now shows promise for the treatment of head and neck cancer. Dong Shin, ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Apr 06, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Antibiotic resistant bacteria proliferate in agricultural soils

Infectious diseases kill roughly 13 million people worldwide, annually, a toll that continues to rise, aided and abetted by resistance genes. Now a study, published in the March Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy finds ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Mar 20, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study finds how bacteria resist a 'Trojan horse' antibiotic

A new study describes how bacteria use a previously unknown means to defeat an antibiotic. The researchers found that the bacteria have modified a common "housekeeping" enzyme in a way that enables the enzyme ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Mar 19, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Arctic evolution leads to salmonella vaccine

Bacteria harvested from the frigid waters of the Arctic could be the key to a new type of temperature-sensitive vaccine. University of Victoria microbiology researcher Dr. Francis Nano has received Genome BC Proof-of-Concept ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Mar 05, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Roundworm research reviewed in Science publication

There are 16,000 types of parasitic roundworms causing illnesses in humans and animals. Controlling their effects on health becomes more difficult as the medicines used to treat them become less effective. A University of ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 03, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Overcoming cancer drug resistance with nanoparticles

One of the ways in which cancer cells evade anticancer therapy is by producing a protein that pumps drugs out of the cell before these compounds can exert their cell-killing effects. A research team at Northwestern University ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Jan 20, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Chemistry trick renews hope against killer diseases

As infections such as tuberculosis have become immune to an ever widening range of antibiotics doctors have looked on helplessly.

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 28, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 1

Research team shows cultural practices can cause biological evolution

(PhysOrg.com) -- When most people think of evolution, they think of animals growing bigger or smaller over generations due to food types or source, bacteria evolving resistance to drugs, or of humans losing their fur and ...

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created Dec 20, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 3 | with audio podcast report

Researchers use whole-genome sequencing to monitor evolution of drug resistance in bacteria

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two research groups working independently have come up with two different ways to use whole-genome sequencing to follow the path bacteria take in developing resistance to anti-bacterial drugs. Such research ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Dec 19, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Infectious fungus, thought to be asexual, isn't: More evidence of sex in the Candida genus

The fungi of the Candida genus, known to millions of patients worldwide for their ability to cause serious infections, were once all thought to be asexual. Even after scientists discovered that the mating habits of Candid ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Dec 05, 2011 | popularity 2 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Antibiotics in swine feed encourage gene exchange

A study to be published in the online journal mBio on November 29 shows that adding antibiotics to swine feed causes microorganisms in the guts of these animals to start sharing genes that could spread antibiotic resistance.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Nov 28, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Drug resistance

Drug resistance is the reduction in effectiveness of a drug in curing a disease or improving a patient's symptoms. When the drug is not intended to kill or inhibit a pathogen, then the term is equivalent to dosage failure or drug tolerance. More commonly, the term is used in the context of diseases caused by pathogens.

Pathogens are said to be drug-resistant when drugs meant to neutralize them have reduced effect. When an organism is resistant to more than one drug, it is said to be multidrug resistant.

Drug resistance is an example of evolution in microorganisms. Individuals that are not susceptible to the drug effects are capable of surviving drug treatment, and therefore have greater fitness than susceptible individuals. By the process of natural selection, drug resistant traits are selected for in subsequent offspring, resulting in a population that is drug resistant.

For more information about Drug resistance, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.