Study identifies existing drugs that could be repurposed to treat gonorrhea
2021-07-01
(Press-News.org) New research being presented at this year's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) being held online (9-12 July) identifies drugs that could potentially be repurposed for the treatment of gonorrhoea (Neisseria gonorrhoeae [Ng]): a sexually transmitted infection which is becoming increasingly resistant to existing antibiotics.
The decreased susceptibility of the Ng bacterium to extended spectrum cephalosporin antibiotics has become an important public health issue as cases of this common infection become more difficult to treat.
The study by Dr Liliana Rodrigues and colleagues at Global Health and Tropical Medicine (GHTM), Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (IHMT), Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal, used computer analysis of candidate drugs to predict whether they would interact with proteins in the Ng bacterium involved in energy metabolism and the removal of toxic substances.
One potential method for increasing the effectiveness of antimicrobial drugs is to target certain protein-based structures called efflux pumps which are embedded in the cellular membrane and act to remove toxic compounds which could damage the function or structure of that cell. These pumps play an important role in bacterial survival by removing antimicrobial compounds that have entered the cell, thus making treatments for infection less effective. Drugs which target the specific proteins in efflux pumps could be used to deactivate them, and when used in combination with current antimicrobials could improve or restore the activity of these medications by increasing their concentration within the bacterial cells.
Development of any brand-new drug is a long and expensive process, and a more cost-effective strategy is to study existing compounds which are known to be safe and have been approved for clinical use for other diseases, to find those which act as efflux inhibitors and could potentially be repurposed for this role.
The team's analysis predicted the existence of 100 Ng drug targets which were associated with 680 existing approved drugs. Further detailed examination of these results narrowed this down to 30 potential targets and 57 drug candidates. These included dequalinium (an antiseptic), doxorubicin (a cancer chemotherapy drug), metformin (used for diabetes), and thiabendazole (used to treat worm infections). These already-approved medications target a multidrug efflux protein, and the enzymes NADH-dehydrogenase, flavoprotein-ubiquinone oxidoreductase, and succinate dehydrogenase, respectively.
The authors conclude: "The identified drugs are approved for a variety of indications, such as epilepsy, hypertension, diabetes and cancer and may serve as lead compounds for the development of new drugs against gonorrhoea. This work could help establish a new paradigm for the design of new drugs and therapeutic strategies to be used in the treatment of gonorrhoea infections."
INFORMATION:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-07-01
New research presented at this year's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) taking place online (9-12 July) shows that individuals affected by mental illnesses including depression and schizophrenia experience an increased incidence of tuberculosis (TB).
TB and mental illnesses are both urgent global health priorities with a high prevalence across the world, and often co-exist. Although poor mental health is known to affect the immune system, it is not known whether mental illness plays a causal role in TB infection ...
2021-07-01
COVID-19 is common in pet cats and dogs whose owners have the virus, according to new research being presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) held online this year.
Cases of owners spreading the disease to their dog or cat have been documented before but are considered to be of negligible risk to public health. However, as vaccination and other measures reduce human-to-human transmission of the virus, it is becoming imperative that we understand more about the potential risk posed by animal infections.
To find out more, Dr Els Broens ...
2021-07-01
**Note this is a special early release from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2021). Please credit the conference if you use this story**
New research being presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), held online this year, suggests that people with COVID-19 frequently pass it on to their pets. Cats that sleep on their owner's bed seem to be at particular risk of infection.
Previous studies have shown that cats and dogs can catch COVID-19 from their owners but it wasn't clear how susceptible they were and what, if anything, increased their odds of becoming infected. Answering these questions is important from both a public health and animal ...
2021-07-01
Individuals who contract COVID-19 even after vaccination are likely to have a lower viral load, experience a shorter infection time and have milder symptoms than people who are unvaccinated, according to research that includes data from ongoing University of Arizona Health Sciences studies.
"If you get vaccinated, about 90% of the time you're not going to get COVID-19," said Jeff Burgess, MD, MS, MPH, associate dean for research and professor at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and principal investigator of the Arizona Healthcare, ...
2021-06-30
MINNEAPOLIS - Finding treatments for advanced multiple sclerosis (MS) has been difficult. But new research may help neurologists identify which drugs are best for people with the advanced form of MS called secondary progressive MS. The new study, published in the June 30, 2021, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, found that the more potent disease-modifying drugs are more effective in reducing flare-ups in secondary progressive MS than the less potent drugs that tend to be safer to take. However, the researchers found no difference in how fast the disease progressed between these two types of drugs.
Most ...
2021-06-30
MINNEAPOLIS - A new study suggests that even when differences in socioeconomic status are taken into consideration, Black people with multiple sclerosis (MS) may be more negatively impacted by the disease than white people with MS. The research is published in the June 30, 2021, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study found that Black people with MS had lower scores on certain measures of neurological health, like dexterity and walking tests and showed more evidence of disease progression on brain scans.
"While lower socioeconomic status appears to be linked to doing worse on tests ...
2021-06-30
June 30, 2021 - For most patients, the reasons for having a facelift are simple: to "turn back the clock" for a younger and more attractive appearance. Even during the pandemic year 2020, more than 234,000 patients underwent facelift surgery, according to American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) statistics.
When considering facelift surgery, patients may ask, "How much younger will I look?" For plastic surgeons, that has been a difficult question to answer. Typically, the cosmetic outcomes of facelifting have been judged on a case-by-case basis, or with the use of subjective ratings.
Now research suggests a new, objective approach to assessing the reduction in apparent age after facelift surgery: artificial intelligence (AI) networks trained to estimate age based on facial ...
2021-06-30
Electron motion in atoms and molecules is of fundamental importance to many physical, biological, and chemical processes. Exploring electron dynamics within atoms and molecules is essential for understanding and manipulating these phenomena. Pump-probe spectroscopy is the conventional technique. The 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry provides a well-known example wherein femtosecond pumped laser pulses served to probe the atomic motion involved in chemical reactions. However, because the timescale of electron motion within atoms and molecules is on the order of attoseconds (10-18 seconds) rather than femtoseconds (10-15 seconds), attosecond pulses are required to probe electron motion. With the development of ...
2021-06-30
A recent University of Arizona College of Pharmacy study suggests that Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) may be a valuable means of assesing clinical skills while providing learning experiences for pharmacy students in community pharmacy settings. While the OSCEs were designed to assess health care professionals in a clinical setting, there was limited data on its use in testing skills required in community pharmacies, until now.
For pharmacists working in retail, guiding patients on the use of over-the-counter (OTC) drugs is a common part of the job. According to a recent survey from the American ...
2021-06-30
Directing a meeting, dialing up an old acquaintance, dictating the perfect tuna salad sandwich across a drive-through window. For business and for pleasure, human beings are in constant communication.Our proclivity for socialization is lifelong, equally prominent in the lives of adolescents and adults. A recent study determined key differences in the ways that various age groups communicate, as well as one conversational component that stands the test of time: friendship. Specifically, bonds between individuals who identify as female.
Led by former Beckman Institute postdoctoral researchers Michelle Rodrigues and Si On Yoon, an interdisciplinary team evaluated how interlocutors' age and familiarity with one another impacts a conversation, reviewing the interaction's ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Study identifies existing drugs that could be repurposed to treat gonorrhea
