EurekAlert: New Web Tool Fights Antibacterial Resistance. “In 1943, two scientists named Max Delbrück and Salvador Luria conducted an experiment to show that bacteria can mutate randomly, independent of external stimulus, such as an antibiotic that threatens a bacterial cells’ survival. Today the Luria-Delbrück experiment is widely used in laboratories for a different purpose–scientists use this classic experiment to determine microbial mutation rates. When performing the Luria-Delbrück experiment, scientists need efficient computer algorithms to extract reliable estimates of mutation rates from data, and they also need well-designed software tools to access these sophisticated algorithms.”
Tag Archives: antibiotics
University of Minnesota: Study adds more evidence of antibiotic overuse in COVID-19 patients
University of Minnesota: Study adds more evidence of antibiotic overuse in COVID-19 patients. “The findings of the study, which is the largest study to date on antibiotic use in US COVID-19 patients, add to the growing body of research on antibiotic prescribing during the early months of the pandemic. Studies to date have estimated that anywhere from 55% to 98% of hospitalized COVID patients around the world were treated with antibiotics, while only a fraction had a bacterial co-infection that would require their use. This has led to widespread concern about unnecessary antibiotic use during the pandemic.”
FDI World Dental Federation: Study shows dramatic rise in antibiotics prescribed to dental patients in England during COVID-19 lockdown earlier this year
FDI World Dental Federation: Study shows dramatic rise in antibiotics prescribed to dental patients in England during COVID-19 lockdown earlier this year. “One of the unintended consequences of the COVID-19 lockdowns in England earlier this year has been a 25 per cent increase in the prescription of antibiotics by dentists, according to a new study published today in the British Dental Journal (BDJ). Prescription rates were the highest in London, with an increase of 60 per cent for the same period and the lowest increases, less than 10 per cent, were in the South-West of England.”
Phys .org: Dozens of potential new antibiotics discovered with free online app
Phys .org: Dozens of potential new antibiotics discovered with free online app. “A new web tool speeds the discovery of drugs to kill Gram-negative bacteria, which are responsible for the overwhelming majority of antibiotic-resistant infections and deaths. The tool also offers insights into discrete chemical changes that can convert drugs that kill other bacteria into drugs to fight Gram-negative infections.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison: Antibiotic resistance across Wisconsin revealed by new maps
University of Wisconsin-Madison: Antibiotic resistance across Wisconsin revealed by new maps. “… a team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy and the State Cartographer’s Office have developed a prototype system that maps out trends in antibiotic resistance across Wisconsin. They drew inspiration from easy-to-read weather maps and consulted with doctors to develop the tool, which provides guidance at a glance of the likelihood a pathogen will respond to a particular drug.”
Seattle Times: Seattle doctors, scientists fight superbugs that could kill millions
Seattle Times: Seattle doctors, scientists fight superbugs that could kill millions. “Catching an ear infection is uncomfortable enough, but imagine if the antibiotics a doctor prescribed didn’t work. It’s a problem that at least 2 million people in the U.S. face every year, when they catch infections that are resistant to antibiotics, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That makes the phenomenon known as antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, ‘one of the biggest public health challenges of our time,’ the agency said. AMR may cause 10 million deaths globally by 2050, based on rising drug resistance for six pathogens, according to a report commissioned by the British government in 2016.”
CIDRAP: ARMADA seeks to create ‘criminal database’ of drug-resistant pathogens
CIDRAP: ARMADA seeks to create ‘criminal database’ of drug-resistant pathogens. “Using a big-data approach and a network of hospitals and clinical laboratories around the world, a new non-profit initiative aims to create a comprehensive ‘criminal database’ of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains that can be recognized by their genetic fingerprint.”
Revitalizing the drug pipeline: AntibioticDB, an open access database to aid antibacterial research and development (Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy)
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy: Revitalizing the drug pipeline: AntibioticDB, an open access database to aid antibacterial research and development. “The current state of antibiotic discovery, research and development is insufficient to respond to the need for new treatments for drug-resistant bacterial infections. The process has changed over the last decade, with most new agents that are in Phases 1–3, or recently approved, having been discovered in small- and medium-sized enterprises or academia. These agents have then been licensed or sold to large companies for further development with the goal of taking them to market. However, early drug discovery and development, including the possibility of developing previously discontinued agents, would benefit from a database of antibacterial compounds for scrutiny by the developers. This article describes the first free, open-access searchable database of antibacterial compounds, including discontinued agents, drugs under pre-clinical development and those in clinical trials: AntibioticDB.” The article is free.
U of Minnesota: Global antibiotic resistance tracking project launched
University of Minnesota: Global antibiotic resistance tracking project launched. “Global charitable foundation Wellcome Trust today announced a new research project to track and document the burden of disease associated with antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The Global Burden of Disease AMR project will be collecting data from all over the world to create a map of disease and deaths caused by drug-resistant infections, according to a news release from UK-based Wellcome, which announced that it will be investing £2.4 million ($3.2 million US) in the project as part of its efforts to address the AMR threat. “
CIDRAP: New data-sharing platform aims to boost antibiotic discovery
CIDRAP (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy): New data-sharing platform aims to boost antibiotic discovery. “The publicly available database and interactive data-sharing tool, called the Shared Platform for Antibiotic Research and Knowledge (SPARK), will include curated antibiotic discovery data from accessible sources, along with unpublished data, related content, and expert analysis. The hope is that SPARK will allow scientists from around the world who are working on antibiotic discovery to share data, gain new insights, collaborate, and ultimately advance research on molecules that can penetrate and stay inside gram-negative bacteria—the toughest and most pressingly important bacterial pathogens.”
Radio New Zealand: Search for NZ superbug cure turns to crowdfunding
Radio New Zealand: Search for NZ superbug cure turns to crowdfunding. “A New Zealand microbiologist has had to resort to crowdfunding to raise money for research into the growing global problem of antibiotic resistance.”
Fierce Pharma: Newly beefed up in antibiotics, Pfizer launches user-friendly access to global resistance database
Fierce Pharma: Newly beefed up in antibiotics, Pfizer launches user-friendly access to global resistance database. “ATLAS tracks a wide array of pathogens and antibiotic treatments, allowing doctors, healthcare providers, researchers and even average consumers to look at what’s happening in their own backyards. A physician prescribing an antibiotic to a patient for a known infection, for example, can look up resistance rates and trends for the drugs they’re considering—all the way down to the regional and state level.”
In Development: A Database of Ingredients from Medieval Medical Treatments
In development: a database of ingredients from medieval medical treatments. “Erin Connelly, a Penn Libraries fellow in digital manuscript studies, is creating a database of the ingredients used in medieval medical recipes, analyzing not only what they are, but how they are used in combination. As a member of an ‘ancientbiotics’ team, she is working with an interdisciplinary group—including pharmacists, microbiologists, chemists, medievalists and data experts in the United States and the United Kingdom—to test the efficacy of the medieval medical treatments, and their relevance to modern medicine.”
Science Daily: Social media proves effective as a tool for antimicrobial stewardship
Science Daily: Social media proves effective as a tool for antimicrobial stewardship. “A study by Jennifer Pisano, MD, and colleagues appearing in the American Journal of Infection Control, finds that social media platforms — including Facebook and Twitter — provide an effective method to reinforce antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASP) and encourage the use of ASP resources to promote antimicrobial mindfulness among internal medicine residents. The strategy pioneered by the researchers successfully directed medical residents to the appropriate use of clinical pathways.”