#molecular bioscience

Scientists have discovered that bacteria can create something like memories about when to form strategies that can cause dangerous infections in people, such as resistance to antibiotics and bacterial swarms when millions of bacteria come together on a single surface. The discovery—which has potential applications for preventing and combatting bacterial infections and addressing antibiotic-resistant bacteria—relates to a common chemical element bacterial cells can use to form and pass along these memories to their progeny over later generations. Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin found that E. coli bacteria use iron levels as a way to store information about different behaviors that can then be activated in response to certain stimuli. The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Scientists had previously observed that bacteria that had a prior experience of swarming (moving on a surface as a collective using flagella) improve subsequent swarming performance. The UT-led research team set out to learn why. Bacteria don't have neurons, synapses or nervous systems, so any memories are not like the ones of blowing out candles at a childhood birthday party. They are more like information stored on a computer.

An old drug supercharged by University of Queensland researchers has emerged as a new antibiotic that could destroy some of the world’s most dangerous superbugs.

The supercharge technique , led by Dr Mark Blaskovich and Professor Matt Cooper from UQ’sInstitute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), potentially could revitalise other antibiotics.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria – superbugs – cause 700,000…

Back with a Vengeance: The Trouble with Defeating Diseases SOURCE: The University of Texas- Austin 

Millions of people use antibacterial soap daily in order to stay healthy.  This, it turns out, may actually do much more harm than good by contributing to the spread of drug-resistant disease.

Products made using triclosan — a common antibiotic found in everything from hand soap to cleaning wipes to toys — are among University of Texas microbiologist Marvin Whiteley‘s biggest pet peeves. “The problem with that antibiotic is that it’s really not that active against a lot of the bugs you’d hope it would be,” says Whiteley, a professor of molecular biosciences.

But it’s not triclosan’s ineffectiveness that bugs Whiteley. It’s that it weakens other antibiotics. “Bacteria that are susceptible to triclosan become resistant to it, but they also become resistant to antibiotics you might get at the doctor’s office. So you’re proliferating antibiotic resistance,” he warns. “We’re putting millions of pounds of this stuff into the environment.”

(via Back with a Vengeance: The Trouble with Defeating Diseases « Know)

TOP IMAGE Scanning electron micrograph showing Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells (false-colored green) confined within a bacterial “lobster” trap, allowing researchers to study how communities of bacteria interact and develop infections.

BOTTOM IMAGE  Depiction of the antibiotic resistance determinant New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM-1) after its inactivation of the drug methicillin.

An international study led by the University of Queensland has tracked a potentially devastating multi-drug resistant E. coli strain that is only one gene away from being resistant to almost all antibiotics.

Study science at the University of Queensland

UQ Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre scientist Dr Nouri Ben Zakour said the emergence and rapid spread of E. coli ST131 meant urinary tract and bloodstream infections could become more common and difficult to treat.

“More than 150 million cases of urinary tract infection are reported globally every year, so an E. coli resistant to all currently effective antibiotic treatments could be devastating to the community,” she said.

The research has been published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.

Dr Ben Zakour, from the UQ School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, said E. coli ST131 was not viewed to be problematic five years ago. “This study lets us understand in detail the evolution of a bacterial pathogen from obscurity to notoriety,” she said. “It appears the E. coli ST131 arose from a single ancestor more than a decade ago.”

The research team used the latest DNA sequencing techniques to identify the genetic differences between E. coli ST131 strains taken from six regions around the world.

“We needed to develop new software just to analyse all of the data,” Dr Ben Zakour said.

Senior researcher Dr Scott Beatson said it was vitally important to understand E. coli ST131, particularly as there were few new anti-microbial drugs in the developmental pipeline.

“The gravity of this problem is such that E. coli ST131 are only one gene away from being resistant to all antibiotics that can be used to effectively treat urinary tract infections,” he said.

Co-first author Dr Nicola Petty, who now leads a research group in the ithree infection, immunity and innovation institute at the University of Technology Sydney, said the research would  enable the development of tests to rapidly detect and help combat the spread of this superbug.

The study was funded by a grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Research group leaders Dr Beatson and Professor Mark Schembri were awarded an additional four-year $793,000 grant in the latest NHMRC funding round to continue work in the area.

The University of Queensland-led team, which included Professor David Patterson at the UQ Centre for Clinical Research, carried out the research with international collaborators including Dr Matthew Upton (Plymouth University), Professor Timothy Walsh (Cardiff University), Professor Gordon Dougan (Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute), Dr Jesús Rodríguez Baño (University of Seville) and Dr Johann Pitout (University of Calgary).

UQ School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences