PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

UCF scientist uncovers roots of antibiotic resistance

By understanding how mutations occur, researchers can better understand and develop therapeutics to combat resistant infections

2023-05-05
(Press-News.org) By Suhtling Wong | May 1, 2023 11:19 am

Bacteria naturally adapt to various environmental stimuli and as they mutate, these changes can make them resistant to drugs that would kill or slow their growth.

In a recent article published in PLoS Genetics, UCF College of Medicine microbiologist Dr. Salvador Almagro-Moreno uncovers the evolutionary origins of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria. His studies on the bacterium that causes cholera, Vibrio cholerae, provide insight into deciphering what conditions must occur for infectious agents to become resistant.  

“How AMR occurs in bacterial populations and the pathways leading to these new traits are still poorly understood,” he said. “This poses a major public health threat as antimicrobial resistance is on the rise.“

Dr. Almagro-Moreno studied genetic variants of a protein found in bacterial membranes called OmpU. Using computational and molecular approaches, his team found that several OmpU mutations in the cholera bacteria led to resistance to numerous antimicrobial agents. This resistance included antimicrobial peptides that act as defenses in the human gut. The researchers found that other OmpU variants did not provide these properties, making the protein an ideal system for deciphering the specific processes that occur to make some bacteria resistant to antimicrobials. 

By comparing resistant and antibiotic sensitive variants, the researchers were able to identify specific parts of OmpU associated with the emergence of antibiotic resistance. They also discovered that the genetic material encoding these variants, along with associated traits, can be passed between bacterial cells, increasing therisk of spreading AMR in populations under antibiotic pressure. 

By understanding how mutations occur, researchers can better understand and develop therapeutics to combat resistant infections. Dr. Almagro-Moreno is also looking at environmental factors such as pollution and warming of the oceans, as possible causes of resistant bacteria. “We are studying the genetic diversity ofenvironmental populations, including coastal Florida isolates, to develop a new approach to understandinghow antimicrobial resistance evolves,” he explained.

Understanding the bacteria that causes cholera, an acute diarrheal illness linked to infected water and foods, has global implications. The disease sickens up to 4 million people worldwide and severe cases can cause death within hours. 

 

 

 

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Archaea in a warming climate become less diverse, more predictable

Archaea in a warming climate become less diverse, more predictable
2023-05-05
Led by Jizhong Zhou, Ph.D., the director of the Institute for Environmental Genomics at the University of Oklahoma, an international research team conducted a long term experiment that found that climate warming reduced the diversity of and significantly altered the community structure of soil archaea. Their findings are published in the journal Nature Climate Change. At the microbiological level, life can be described as belonging to one of three kingdoms – how species are described in relation to one another. Eukarya contains complex organisms like animals and ...

Helping health care providers support Black breastfeeding families

2023-05-05
PHILADELPHIA (May 5, 2023) - Despite breastfeeding being recommended for at least two years, only 36 percent of all infants are still breastfed at their first birthday. Black/African American mothers are least likely to initiate breastfeeding with initiation rates of only 74 percent compared to 90 percent of Asian mothers with a national average of 84 percent. Given the disparities in breastfeeding initiation, there are likely to be equivalent disparities in breastfeeding duration. New research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) published in the journal Breastfeeding ...

Jefferson Lab hosts International Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics Conference

Jefferson Lab hosts International Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics Conference
2023-05-05
NEWPORT NEWS, VA – Experts in high-performance computing and data management are gathering in Norfolk next week for the 26th International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP2023). Held approximately every 18 months, this high-impact conference will be held at the Norfolk Marriott Waterside in Norfolk, Va., May 8-12. CHEP2023 is hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in nearby Newport News, Va. This is the first in-person CHEP conference to be held since 2019. Science is driven by data. As research has progressed, so has the sheer volume of scientific data. The CHEP2023 conference ...

Exciton fission – one photon in, two electrons out

Exciton fission – one photon in, two electrons out
2023-05-05
”When pentacene is excited by light, the electrons in the material rapidly react,” explains Prof. Ralph Ernstorfer, a senior author of the study. “It was an open and very disputed question whether a photon excites two electrons directly or initially one electron, which subsequently shares its energy with another electron.” To unravel this mystery the researchers used time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, a cutting-edge technique to observe the dynamics of electrons on the femtosecond time scale, which is a billionth of a ...

Study: ChemoID platform-predicted treatments lead to longer survival for glioblastoma patients

Study: ChemoID platform-predicted treatments lead to longer survival for glioblastoma patients
2023-05-05
New multi-institutional phase 3 clinical trial data published May 2 in Cell Reports Medicine found that a cancer stem cell test can accurately decide more effective treatments and lead to increased survival for patients with glioblastoma, a deadly brain tumor. The University of Cincinnati’s Soma Sengupta, MD, PhD, a co-first author of the research and a University of Cincinnati Cancer Center physician-researcher, said the research focused on patients whose glioblastoma had returned after initial treatment.  The trial tested the effectiveness ...

Best path to fair living wage for global supply chain workers may take an indirect route new research suggests

2023-05-05
Toronto - Want to make a positive difference in the wage conditions of developing country factory workers churning out products for multinational firms? Paying them more seems an obvious first step. But research looking at the experience of clothing retailer H&M Group suggests a less direct approach — by intervening at the management practice level — can empower workers and significantly raise wages in sustainable ways, multiplying the impact of the company’s investment many times over. In 2013, following activist pressure for reform, H&M went to its suppliers and asked them to voluntarily implement ...

An online adaptive model for streaming anomaly detection based on human-machine cooperation

An online adaptive model for streaming anomaly detection based on human-machine cooperation
2023-05-05
Anomaly detectors are used to distinguish differences between normal and abnormal data, which are usually implemented by evaluating and ranking the anomaly scores of each instance. A static unsupervised streaming anomaly detector is difficult to dynamically adjust anomaly score calculation. To solve the problem, a research team led by Prof. Zhiwen Yu published their new research on 15 April 2023 in Frontiers of Computer Science co-published by Higher Education Press and Springer Nature. The team proposed a human-machine interactive streaming anomaly detection method, named ISPForest, which can ...

How PCOS can affect the health of future generations of men

How PCOS can affect the health of future generations of men
2023-05-05
Sons of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are three times more likely to develop obesity, according to a study published in Cell Reports Medicine. According to the researchers from Karolinska Institutet the findings highlight a previously unknown risk of passing PCOS-related health problems across generations through the male side of a family. PCOS is caused by the ovaries producing too much of the sex hormone testosterone. The disease affects around 15 per cent of women of childbearing age worldwide and is a condition that ...

Quitting smoking early linked with improved survival rates for people diagnosed with lung cancer

2023-05-05
Embargoed for release: Friday, May 5, 2023, 11:00 AM ET Key points: Among those diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer—the most common form of lung cancer—current smokers had 68% higher mortality and former smokers had 26% higher mortality compared to never smokers The longer a patient had gone without smoking pre-diagnosis, the more improved their odds of survival were The study is one of few to examine mortality not just among current and never smokers, but also among former smokers—enabling more robust findings about the impacts ...

Pre-diagnosis smoking cessation and overall survival among patients with non–small cell lung cancer

2023-05-05
About The Study: In this study of patients with non–small cell lung cancer, quitting smoking early was associated with lower mortality following a lung cancer diagnosis, and the association of smoking history with overall survival may have varied depending on clinical stage at diagnosis, potentially owing to the differing treatment regimens and efficacy associated with smoking exposure following diagnosis. Detailed smoking history collection should be incorporated into future epidemiological and clinical studies to improve lung cancer ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Exercise as an anti-ageing intervention to avoid detrimental impact of mental fatigue

UMass Amherst Nursing Professor Emerita honored as ‘Living Legend’

New guidelines aim to improve cystic fibrosis screening

Picky eaters by day, buffet by night: Butterfly, moth diets sync to plant aromas

Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Leanne Redman honored with the E. V. McCollum Award from the American Society for Nutrition

CCNY physicists uncover electronic interactions mediated via spin waves

Researchers’ 3D-printing formula may transform future of foam

Nurture more important than nature for robotic hand

Drug-delivering aptamers target leukemia stem cells for one-two knockout punch

New study finds that over 95% of sponsored influencer posts on Twitter were not disclosed

New sea grant report helps great lakes fish farmers navigate aquaculture regulations

Strain “trick” improves perovskite solar cells’ efficiency

How GPS helps older drivers stay on the roads

Estrogen and progesterone stimulate the body to make opioids

Dancing with the cells – how acoustically levitating a diamond led to a breakthrough in biotech automation

Machine learning helps construct an evolutionary timeline of bacteria

Cellular regulator of mRNA vaccine revealed... offering new therapeutic options

Animal behavioral diversity at risk in the face of declining biodiversity

Finding their way: GPS ignites independence in older adult drivers

Antibiotic resistance among key bacterial species plateaus over time

‘Some insects are declining but what’s happening to the other 99%?’

Powerful new software platform could reshape biomedical research by making data analysis more accessible

Revealing capillaries and cells in living organs with ultrasound

American College of Physicians awards $260,000 in grants to address equity challenges in obesity care

Researchers from MARE ULisboa discover that the European catfish, an invasive species in Portugal, has a prolonged breeding season, enhancing its invasive potential

Rakesh K. Jain, PhD, FAACR, honored with the 2025 AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research

Solar cells made of moon dust could power future space exploration

Deporting immigrants may further shrink the health care workforce

Border region emergency medical services in migrant emergency care

Resident physician intentions regarding unionization

[Press-News.org] UCF scientist uncovers roots of antibiotic resistance
By understanding how mutations occur, researchers can better understand and develop therapeutics to combat resistant infections