All Phage Therapy articles – Page 4
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NewsResearchers uncover how viruses choose whether to become nasty or not
Researchers have deciphered a novel complex decision-making process that helps viruses choose to turn nasty or stay friendly to their bacterial host.
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NewsPhage enzyme deployed against drug-resistant bacteria
Given the worldwide prevalence of drug-resistance bacteria, the research fraternity is on the lookout for alternative bactericidal treatment approaches. In a recent study, Japanese researchers have now compared bacteriophage-derived enzymes for combating drug-resistant bacteria. Source: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Digitally-colorized scanning electron micrograph (SEM) ...
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NewsFirst atom-level structure of packaged viral genome reveals new properties, dynamics
A computational model of the more than 26 million atoms in a DNA-packed viral capsid expands our understanding of virus structure and DNA dynamics, insights that could provide new research avenues and drug targets, researchers report.
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News‘Dynamic duo’ defences in bacteria ward off viral threats
Scientists have discovered that bacteria can pair up their defence systems to create a formidable force, greater than the sum of its parts, to fight off attack from phage viruses.
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NewsPhage therapy eradicates pan-resistant priority pathogen in vivo, study shows
A new study describes the use of phage therapy to eradicate multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in a living organism (in vivo) with important new implications to antibiotic resistance.
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NewsEnvironmental monitoring offers low-cost phage tool for typhoid fever surveillance
Researchers can accurately track where typhoid fever cases are highest by monitoring environmental samples for bacteriophages that specifically infect the bacterium that causes typhoid fever.
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NewsDrug-resistant bacterium responds to phage-antibiotic combo therapy
A case study, which required emergency investigational new drug approval from the U.S. FDA, is one of only a handful that have used bacteriophage therapy to treat Enterococcus faecium infection.
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NewsModified phage DNA can kill deadly pathogens
DNA modified from a bacteriophage and put inside Pseudomonas aeruginosa was found to bypass the pathogen’s defense mechanisms to assemble into virions, which sliced through the bacterium’s cell to kill it.
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NewsPhages help to identify people at risk of developing TB
A novel approach to studying the progression of tuberculosis (TB) from infection to disease has identified and treated people at increased risk of developing the disease that current methods of testing would not.
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NewsPhages found that bring slumbering bacteria out of deep sleep and then kill them
Researchers questioning whether evolution might have produced bacteriophages that specialise in dormant bacteria and could be used to target them have now shown that such phages, though rare, do indeed exist.
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NewsPhages pay heavy price for environmental intel - but it’s worth it
Phages, the viruses that infect bacteria, will pay a high growth-rate cost to access environmental information that can help them choose which lifecycle to pursue, according to a study. Source: L. F. Lee; J. A. Boezi Bacteriophage gh-1 for Pseudomonas putida. Yigal Meir and colleagues at Ben-Gurion ...
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NewsGut bacteria combinations protect stem cell transplantation patients from dangerous immune reactions
Researchers have shown that graft versus host disease (GvHD) is less common when certain microbes are present in the gut. In the future, it may be possible to deliberately bring about this protective composition of the microbiome.
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NewsDr Ben Swift named as winner of Basil Jarvis Prize
Dr Ben Swift of the Royal Veterinary College in the UK has been named as this year’s winner of the Basil Jarvis Prize for microbiology.
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NewsMore than 10k viral species found in supraglacial environments
Researchers have revealed more than 10,000 viral species in global supraglacial environments - a 15-fold expansion of DNA viral genomic inventory ever known.
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News‘UK should break licensing impasse and maximise the potential of phages’
The UK’s Science, Innovation & Technology Committee has called for steps to develop the potential of bacteria-killing viruses that can provide an alternative to antibiotics that are attracting growing resistance.
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NewsViral enhancement of nanomaterial cancer sensor improves early detection
Researchers have developed an advanced system of breast cancer cell detection with improved speed and sensitivity, using a viral mechanism to enhance the tool’s sensing accuracy.
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NewsScientists reveal the molecular structure of a complex bacteriophage
For the first time, the molecular structure of a complete tailed virus with a flexible tail has been solved in unprecedented detail.
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NewsNew software makes rapid inroads to find viral weapons for germ warfare
A new bioinformatics software program is paving the way for a rapid expansion of research into bacteriophages, the viruses or phages that play key roles in controlling bacteria.
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NewsScientists reveal rare enzyme role change with bacterial defense system assembly
A never-before-seen phenomenon in a protein: alone, the enzyme processes DNA and RNA but, when bound to another protein as part of a defense system, interacts with a completely different type of compound to help bacteria commit suicide.
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NewsRNA trickery disarms the antiviral CRISPR defenses of bacteria
Bacteria-attacking viruses, known as bacteriophages, use small RNAs to disarm the CRISPR-Cas immune systems of bacteria.