Scientists control bacterial mutations to preserve antibiotic effectiveness
Scientists have discovered a way to control mutation rates in bacteria, paving the way for new strategies to combat antibiotic resistance.
Scientists have discovered a way to control mutation rates in bacteria, paving the way for new strategies to combat antibiotic resistance.
Cell & Microbiology
13 hours ago
0
7
It's an unpleasant fact that most of us are happy to ignore: Our mouths and noses are the natural homes to infectious and antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Cell & Microbiology
13 hours ago
0
1
New research from the University of Nottingham and University of Birmingham has highlighted that blue light has the ability to kill antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria isolated from ear infections in dogs.
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 24, 2024
0
30
A new antibiotic that works by disrupting two different cellular targets would make it 100 million times more difficult for bacteria to evolve resistance, according to new research from the University of Illinois Chicago.
Biochemistry
Jul 23, 2024
0
196
Human-caused global change is a complex phenomenon comprising many factors such as climate change, environmental contamination with chemicals, microplastics, light pollution, and invasive plants. One of the main tasks of ...
Ecology
Jul 19, 2024
0
15
Researchers have developed a strategy to identify new antimicrobial drugs with therapeutic promise from bacterial datasets, providing clues for discovering alternatives to traditional antibiotics.
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 16, 2024
0
0
Artificial intelligence (AI) could be used to identify drug resistant infections, significantly reducing the time it takes for a correct diagnosis, Cambridge researchers have shown. The team determined that an algorithm could ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 8, 2024
0
1
A common infection-causing bacteria was much less likely to evolve antibiotic resistance when treated with a mixture of antimicrobial peptides rather than a single peptide, making these mixtures a viable strategy for developing ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 2, 2024
0
38
Antibiotic resistant bacteria are experts in evolving new strategies to avoid being killed by antibiotics. One such bacterium is Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is naturally found in soil and water, but also hospitals, nursing ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 1, 2024
0
69
Antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections are becoming a major societal challenge. To solve this problem, researchers are working on new drugs that kill bacteria without promoting resistance, and on new materials that prevent ...
Biotechnology
Jun 27, 2024
0
48
In common usage, an antibiotic (from the Ancient Greek: ἀντί – anti, "against", and βίος – bios, "life") is a substance or compound that kills bacteria or inhibits their growth. Antibiotics belong to the broader group of antimicrobial compounds, used to treat infections caused by microorganisms, including fungi and protozoa.
The term "antibiotic" was coined by Selman Waksman in 1942 to describe any substance produced by a microorganism that is antagonistic to the growth of other microorganisms in high dilution. This original definition excluded naturally occurring substances that kill bacteria but are not produced by microorganisms (such as gastric juice and hydrogen peroxide) and also excluded synthetic antibacterial compounds such as the sulfonamides. Many antibiotics are relatively small molecules with a molecular weight less than 2000 Da.[citations needed]
With advances in medicinal chemistry, most antibiotics are now semisynthetic—modified chemically from original compounds found in nature, as is the case with beta-lactams (which include the penicillins, produced by fungi in the genus Penicillium, the cephalosporins, and the carbapenems). Some antibiotics are still produced and isolated from living organisms, such as the aminoglycosides, and others have been created through purely synthetic means: the sulfonamides, the quinolones, and the oxazolidinones. In addition to this origin-based classification into natural, semisynthetic, and synthetic, antibiotics may be divided into two broad groups according to their effect on microorganisms: those that kill bacteria are bactericidal agents, while those that only impair bacterial growth are known as bacteriostatic agents.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA