(Press-News.org) Consuming cranberry products has been anecdotally associated with prevention of urinary tract infections (UTIs) for over 100 years. But is this popular belief a myth, or scientific fact?
In recent years, some studies have suggested that cranberries prevent UTIs by hindering bacteria from sticking to the walls of the urinary tract, thanks to phytochemicals known as proanthocyanidins (PACs). Yet the mechanisms by which cranberry materials may alter bacterial behaviour have not been fully understood.
Now, researchers in McGill University's Department of Chemical Engineering are shedding light on the biological mechanisms by which cranberries may impart protective properties against urinary tract and other infections. Two new studies, spearheaded by Prof. Nathalie Tufenkji, add to evidence of cranberries' effects on UTI-causing bacteria. The findings also point to the potential for cranberry derivatives to be used to prevent bacterial colonization in medical devices such as catheters.
In research results published online last month in the Canadian Journal of Microbiology, Prof. Tufenkji and members of her laboratory report that cranberry powder can inhibit the ability of Proteus mirabilis, a bacterium frequently implicated in complicated UTIs, to swarm on agar plates and swim within the agar. The experiments also show that increasing concentrations of cranberry powder reduce the bacteria's production of urease, an enzyme that contributes to the virulence of infections.
These results build on previous work by the McGill lab, showing that cranberry materials hinder movement of other bacteria involved in UTIs. A genome-wide analysis of an uropathogenic E. coli revealed that expression of the gene that encodes for the bacteria's flagellar filament was decreased in the presence of cranberry PACs.
The team's findings are significant because bacterial movement is a key mechanism for the spread of infection, as infectious bacteria literally swim to disseminate in the urinary tract and to escape the host immune response.
"While the effects of cranberry in living organisms remain subject to further study, our findings highlight the role that cranberry consumption might play in the prevention of chronic infections," Tufenkji says. "More than 150 million cases of UTI are reported globally each year, and antibiotic treatment remains the standard approach for managing these infections. The current rise of bacterial resistance to antibiotics underscores the importance of developing another approach."
Another recent study led by Tufenkji in collaboration with McGill professor Showan Nazhat, a biomaterials expert at the Department of Mining and Materials Engineering, finds that cranberry-enriched silicone substrates impaired the spread of Proteus mirabilis. Those results, published online in the journal Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, point to potential use for cranberry derivatives to hinder the spread of germs in implantable medical devices such as catheters, which are frequently implicated in UTIs.
"Based on the demonstrated bioactivity of cranberry, its use in catheters and other medical devices could someday yield considerable benefits to patient health," Tufenkji says.
INFORMATION:
Funding for the new studies was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Research Chairs program, the Wisconsin Cranberry Board, the Cranberry Institute, the Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la nature et les technologies, and the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec.
Link to the Canadian Journal of Microbiology article:
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/cjm-2012-0744#.UctRHjvqlLc
Link to the Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces article:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927776513002348
How cranberries impact infection-causing bacteria
Research points to potential role for cranberry derivatives in implantable medical devices
2013-07-15
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Researchers question practice of automatically transfusing large amounts of blood to trauma patients
2013-07-15
TORONTO, July 15, 2013—Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital are asking questions about the practice of automatically transfusing large amounts of blood and blood products to trauma patients with major bleeding.
Trauma patients were resuscitated primarily with blood until the second part of the 20th century when the practice was modified so that blood transfusions were given only after lab tests suggested they were needed. The idea of resuscitating primarily with blood was revived after U.S. military physicians in Iraq and Afghanistan reported in 2007 that this practice ...
RI Hospital study: Lunar cycle affects cardiac patients undergoing acute aortic dissection
2013-07-15
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – If you need cardiac surgery in the future, aortic dissection in particular, reach for the moon. Or at least try to schedule your surgery around its cycle. According to a study at Rhode Island Hospital, acute aortic dissection (AAD) repair performed in the waning full moon appears to reduce the odds of death, and a full moon was associated with shorter length of stay (LOS). The study is published online in advance of print in the journal Interactive Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery.
The purpose of the study was to assess the effect of natural time ...
Boldly illuminating biology's 'dark matter'
2013-07-15
Is space really the final frontier, or are the greatest mysteries closer to home? In cosmology, dark matter is said to account for the majority of mass in the universe, however its presence is inferred by indirect effects rather than detected through telescopes. The biological equivalent is "microbial dark matter," that pervasive yet practically invisible infrastructure of life on the planet, which can have profound influences on the most significant environmental processes from plant growth and health, to nutrient cycles in terrestrial and marine environments, the global ...
Drug candidate designed at Scripps Research Institute leads to improved endurance
2013-07-15
JUPITER, FL, July 14, 2013 – An international group of scientists has shown that a drug candidate designed by scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) significantly increases exercise endurance in animal models.
These findings could lead to new approaches to helping people with conditions that acutely limit exercise tolerance, such as obesity, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and congestive heart failure, as well as the decline of muscle capacity associated with aging.
The study was published July 14, 2013, by the journal ...
NIH scientists find that proteins involved in immunity potentially cause cancer
2013-07-15
A set of proteins involved in the body's natural defenses produces a large number of mutations in human DNA, according to a study led by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The findings suggest that these naturally produced mutations are just as powerful as known cancer-causing agents in producing tumors.
The proteins are part of a group called apolipoprotein B mRNA-editing enzyme catalytic polypeptide-like (APOBEC) cytidine deaminases. The investigators found that APOBEC mutations can outnumber all other mutations in some cancers, accounting for over two-thirds ...
DNA abnormalities may contribute to cancer risk in people with type 2 diabetes
2013-07-15
A type of genetic abnormality linked to cancer is more common in people with type 2 diabetes than the rest of the population, a new study has found.
People with type 2 diabetes are already known to have a higher risk of cancers, especially blood cancers like lymphoma and leukaemia. The new study, led by scientists at Imperial College London and CNRS in France, suggests that mutations called clonal mosaic events (CMEs) may partly explain why this is.
CMEs are defects that result in some cells having extra copies or missing copies of large chunks of DNA. They are very ...
Imaging electron pairing in a simple magnetic superconductor
2013-07-15
UPTON, NY-In the search for understanding how some magnetic materials can be transformed to carry electric current with no energy loss, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, Cornell University, and collaborators have made an important advance: Using an experimental technique they developed to measure the energy required for electrons to pair up and how that energy varies with direction, they've identified the factors needed for magnetically mediated superconductivity-as well as those that aren't.
"Our measurements distinguish energy ...
Key step in molecular 'dance' that duplicates DNA deciphered
2013-07-15
UPTON, NY-Building on earlier work exploring the complex choreography by which intricate cellular proteins interact with and copy DNA prior to cell division, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators have captured a key step-molecular images showing how the enzyme that unwinds the DNA double helix gets drawn to and wrapped around its target. Details of the research, published in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, enhance understanding of an essential biological process and may suggest ways for stopping ...
Continuous satellite monitoring of ice sheets needed to better predict sea-level rise
2013-07-15
The findings, published in Nature Geoscience, underscore the need for continuous satellite monitoring of the ice sheets to better identify and predict melting and the corresponding sea-level rise.
The ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland contain about 99.5 per cent of the Earth's glacier ice which would raise global sea level by some 63m if it were to melt completely. The ice sheets are the largest potential source of future sea level rise – and they also possess the largest uncertainty over their future behaviour. They present some unique challenges for predicting ...
Some volcanoes 'scream' at ever-higher pitches until they blow their tops
2013-07-15
It is not unusual for swarms of small earthquakes to precede a volcanic eruption. They can reach a point of such rapid succession that they create a signal called harmonic tremor that resembles sound made by various types of musical instruments, though at frequencies much lower than humans can hear.
A new analysis of an eruption sequence at Alaska's Redoubt Volcano in March 2009 shows that the harmonic tremor glided to substantially higher frequencies and then stopped abruptly just before six of the eruptions, five of them coming in succession.
"The frequency of this ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Tiny metal figurines from Sardinia's Nuragic civilization in around 1,000 BC reveal extensive ancient Mediterranean metal trading networks
Natural microfibers may degrade differently to synthetic materials under simulated sunlight exposure in freshwater and seawater conditions, with implications for how such pollutants affect aquatic lif
Indian new mums report better postpartum wellbeing when their own mum acts as their primary support - while women whose mother-in-law is the primary caregiver instead report significantly lower overal
Young adult intelligence and education are correlated with socioeconomic status in midlife
Traditional and “existential” wellness vary significantly between US regions
Smartwatches detect early signs of PTSD among those watching coverage of the Oct 7 attacks in Israel
The pandemic may have influenced the trainability of dogs, as reported by their owners
The withdrawal of U.S. funding for tuberculosis could lead to up to 2.2 million additional deaths between 2025 and 2030 inclusive
A ‘universal’ therapy against the seasonal flu? Antibody cocktail targets virus weak spot
Could robots help kids conquer reading anxiety? New study from the Department of Computer Science at UChicago suggests so
UCSB-designed soft robot intubation device could save lives
Burial Site challenges stereotypes of Stone Age women and children
Protein found in the eye and blood significantly associated with cognition scores
USF study reveals how menopause impacts women’s voices – and why it matters
AI salespeople aren’t better than humans… yet
Millions of men could benefit from faster scan to diagnose prostate cancer
Simulations solve centuries-old cosmic mystery – and discover new class of ancient star systems
MIT study explains how a rare gene variant contributes to Alzheimer’s disease
Race, ethnicity, insurance payer, and pediatric cardiac arrest survival
High-intensity exercise and hippocampal integrity in adults with cannabis use disorder
“Brain dial” for consumption found in mice
Lung cancer rewires immune cells in the bone marrow to weaken body’s defenses
Researchers find key to Antarctic ice loss blowing in the north wind
Ten years after the discovery, gravitational waves verify Stephen Hawking's Black Hole Area Theorem
Researchers uncover potential biosignatures on Mars
Built to learn: how early brain structure primes the brain to learn efficiently
Cells use electricity to eliminate their ‘weakest’ neighbours to maintain healthy protective barriers
New motion-compensation approach delivers sharper single-pixel imaging for dynamic scenes
Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience now officially part of the Canadian Science Publishing portfolio
What motivates runners? Focusing on the “how” rather than the “why”
[Press-News.org] How cranberries impact infection-causing bacteriaResearch points to potential role for cranberry derivatives in implantable medical devices