Scientists describe gut bacteria that cause sepsis in preterm infants

Results suggest approaches to prevent dangerous bloodstream infections

2014-03-19

(Press-News.org) Researchers studying intestinal bacteria in newborns have characterized the gut bacteria of premature infants who go on to develop sepsis, a serious and potentially life-threatening condition caused by bacteria in the bloodstream. Their findings suggest new strategies for the early detection and prevention of severe bloodstream infections. The research was funded by several components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and the NIH Common Fund—and other organizations.

Led by Phillip I. Tarr, M.D., and Barbara Warner, M.D., of Washington University in St. Louis, the investigators collected stool samples from 217 premature newborns who had been admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at St. Louis Children's Hospital soon after birth. Eleven of these infants developed sepsis between 13 and 82 days of age. Using the same blood samples that were used to diagnose the infection, the researchers genetically compared bacteria found in the affected infants' bloodstream to those found in their earlier stool samples. They also assessed whether sepsis-causing infections spread between infants by studying bacteria found in the stools of two comparison groups without the condition: 96 infants whose stays in the NICU overlapped with the sepsis cases, and 60 infants who stayed in the NICU at different times.

In seven of the 11 infants who developed sepsis, the researchers found genetic matches between bacteria in the initial stool samples and those in later blood samples, suggesting that bacteria from the gut—rather than other parts of the body—are responsible for these infections. From the comparison groups, genetic matches were found in four infants who were located near those who developed sepsis, suggesting that such bacteria can be transmitted between infants, though they do not always cause illness. These results pave the way for the evaluation of new sepsis prevention strategies, such as closer surveillance of premature infants to find strains of gut bacteria associated with sepsis, the study authors write.

INFORMATION:

ARTICLE: MA Carl et al. Sepsis from the gut: The enteric habitat of bacteria that cause late-onset neonatal bloodstream infection. Clinical Infectious Diseases DOI: 10.1093/cid/cit084 (2014).

Melody Mills, Ph.D., program officer in NIAID's Enteric and Hepatic Diseases Branch; Lita M. Proctor, Ph.D., program officer at NHGRI and coordinator of the NIH Common Fund Human Microbiome Project; and Gilman Grave, M.D., chief of NICHD's Pediatric Growth and Nutrition Branch, are available to discuss the findings.

To schedule interviews, please contact the NIAID Office of Communications at (301) 402-1663 or niaidnews@niaid.nih.gov; Steven Benowitz, NHGRI, at (301) 451-8325 or Steven.Benowitz@nih.gov; or Katie Rush, NICHD, at (301) 496-9066 or Katie.Rush@nih.gov.

NIAID conducts and supports research—at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide—to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at http://www.niaid.nih.gov.

NHGRI is one of the 27 institutes and centers at the National Institutes of Health. The NHGRI Extramural Research Program supports grants for research and training and career development at sites nationwide. Additional information about NHGRI can be found at http://www.genome.gov.

About the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD): The NICHD sponsors research on development, before and after birth; maternal, child, and family health; reproductive biology and population issues; and medical rehabilitation. For more information, visit the Institute's website at http://www.nichd.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov/.

NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health®

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Ancient food webs developed modern structure soon after mass extinction

2014-03-19

Researchers from the Santa Fe Institute and the Smithsonian Institution have pieced together a highly detailed picture of feeding relationships among 700 mammal, bird, reptile, fish, insect, and plant species from a 48 million year old lake and forest ecosystem. Their analysis of fossilized remains from the Messel deposit near Frankfurt, Germany, provides the most compelling evidence to date that ancient food webs were organized much like modern food webs. Their paper describing the research appears online and open access this week in Proceedings of the Royal Society ...

NIH grantees sharpen understanding of antibodies that may cut risk of HIV infection

2014-03-19

What immune response should a vaccine elicit to prevent HIV infection? Two studies published online today bring scientists closer to answering this question by identifying previously unrecognized attributes of antibodies that appear to have reduced the risk of HIV infection in the only clinical trial to show efficacy, albeit modest, of an experimental vaccine regimen in people. Earlier analyses of the results of that trial, known as RV144, suggested that antibodies to sites within a part of the HIV envelope called V1V2 correlated with reduced risk of HIV infection. These ...

Patients enjoy good quality of life 10 years after esophagectomy and gastric pull-up

2014-03-19

Beverly, MA, March 19, 2014 – Long-term survivors after esophagectomy with gastric pull-up can enjoy a satisfying meal and good quality of life according to a new study from a team of researchers at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles. This study concluded that pessimism about the long-term quality of life after an esophagectomy on the part of treating physicians and patients is unwarranted. It is published in the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, an official publication of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery. ...

Texans are turning to a different kind of spirit -- vodka -- and saltier is better

2014-03-19

DALLAS, March 19, 2014 — Texans, known for enjoying local beers and Dr Pepper soft drinks, now have a growing beverage industry that would appeal to James Bond, who is well-known for enjoying a good martini. Distillers are producing at least 17 Texas vodkas, researchers reported here today, and the most popular are, surprisingly, those that are a bit salty. Their report, "Shaken not stirred, y'all: A comparison of select Texas vodkas," covered the results of group tastings on the vodkas, as well as some surprising facts about the state's alcoholic beverage market. ...

The aging brain needs REST

2014-03-19

Why do neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's affect only the elderly? Why do some people live to be over 100 with intact cognitive function while others develop dementia decades earlier? More than a century of research into the causes of dementia has focused on the clumps and tangles of abnormal proteins that appear in the brains of people with neurodegenerative diseases. However, scientists know that at least one piece of the puzzle has been missing because some people with these abnormal protein clumps show few or no signs of cognitive decline. A new study ...

Global warming may increase methane emissions from freshwater ecosystems

2014-03-19

New research led by the University of Exeter suggests that rising global temperatures will increase the quantity of the key greenhouse gas methane emitted from freshwater ecosystems to the Earth's atmosphere – which could in turn lead to further warming. The collaborative study, led by Dr Gabriel Yvon-Durocher from the University of Exeter, collated data from hundreds of laboratory experiments and field surveys to demonstrate that the speed at which methane fluxes increase with temperature was the same whether single species populations of methanogens, microbial communities ...

Past HIV vaccine trials reveal new path to success

2014-03-19

DURHAM, N.C. – A multi-national research team led by Duke Medicine scientists has identified a subclass of antibodies associated with an effective immune response to an HIV vaccine. The finding, reported in the March 19, 2014, issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine, helps explain why a combination of two vaccines was able to show some effect, when one vaccine alone did not. The study also provides key insights that could aid development of new vaccines. "More is not always better with an antibody response," said senior author Georgia D. Tomaras, Ph.D., ...

Radiotherapy after mastectomy benefits women with breast cancer in 1-3 lymph nodes

2014-03-19

Glasgow, UK: Women whose breast cancer has spread to just a few lymph nodes under their arm are less likely to have their disease recur or to die from it if they have radiotherapy after mastectomy, according to new research to be presented at the European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-9) on Thursday and published in The Lancet today (Wednesday). [1] Dr Paul McGale will tell the meeting that, until now, there has been uncertainty over whether women with early breast cancer that has spread to just one, two or three lymph nodes under the arm gain any benefit from radiotherapy ...

The Goldilocks principle: New hypothesis explains earth's continued habitability

2014-03-19

Researchers from USC and Nanjing University in China have documented evidence suggesting that part of the reason that the Earth has become neither sweltering like Venus nor frigid like Mars lies with a built-in atmospheric carbon dioxide regulator – the geologic cycles that churn up the planet's rocky surface. Scientists have long known that "fresh" rock pushed to the surface via mountain formation effectively acts as a kind of sponge, soaking up the greenhouse gas CO2. Left unchecked, however, that process would simply deplete atmospheric CO2 levels to a point that would ...

Corporate-funded academic inventions spur increased innovation, analysis says

2014-03-19

Berkeley — Academic research sponsored by industry has a strong track record of leading to innovative patents and licenses, challenging assumptions that corporate support skews science toward inventions that are less accessible and less useful to others than those funded by the government or non-profit organizations, according to a new analysis. The findings, to be published in a Wednesday, March 19, commentary in the journal Nature, are based upon a study of two decades of records from the University of California system. The authors, led by Brian Wright, UC Berkeley ...

Scientists describe gut bacteria that cause sepsis in preterm infants

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: