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New Superbug Weapon to Replace Failing Antibiotics
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers in British Columbia have identified a peptide that can fight infection by boosting the immune system. Because antibiotics are under threat due to an explosion of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, this may be just in time."
New Superbug WEAPON. A superbug killing as a replacement for antibiotics would be interesting though.
I won't take it unless it comes with mint frosting.
A new Superdrug would be better than a Superbug ?
I, for one, hope it doesn't work. I have a lot of shotgun shells and canned foods that will go to waste if my prediction of bacteria wiping out the human race doesn't come true.
I don't respond to AC's.
Let's inject it into all our livestock.
We are all just people.
Why do I have a hard time trusting a source like "curedeath.com"?
Maybe if we didn't prescribe an antibiotic for everything that can ever go wrong with a person, there wouldn't be so many resistant strains.
Sniffles? Take an antibiotic.
If people wouldn't run to their doctor every time they get a little sniffle, we wouldn't have this problem.
Let your body fight off problems on its own. Only go for help when it's really life-threatening. Your "busy" life can wait a few days while you get better.
This is a sig. Deal with it.
This is a representation of some very adept work by researchers at Inimex and some well spent funding by CIHR.
The human body has seven systems: muscoskeletal, reproductive, skin, cardiopulmonary, nervous, digestive, and immune. Many of the ailments which people experience--cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders, prion diseases, leukemia, infections--invade tissues of the six other systems but are ultimately traceable as a deficiency in their own immune system. The immune system is trained as the maintenance arm of the body. When cells become cancerous the immune system is trained to find and remove them. When viruses and bacteria enter the body the immune system is trained to kill them. When plaques build up in the body the immune system is trained to remove them. When cells are starving, or asphyxiated, or agitated it is the immune system which is responsible for transmitting the proper signals systemwide and stimulating other tissues to produce the materials necessary to fix the problem.
The devoted study of immunology, of which the language which cells use to communicate with each other is central, has been pushed aside for many years by the larger, more established, more prestigious research groups both in academia and in the industry. When I worked at Abbott Laboratories, starting in '99, I found that their immunology department had recently been all but terminated in favor of shuffling the money to the devoted disease areas. While treating the diseases as separate from the body has led to some novel treatments (eg. antiangionesis and apoptosis for cancer) it seemed, to me, that a whole boatload of data which pointed to the potential cures available within the body itself were being ignored--not because they lacked scientific merit--but because the social structures within the company (and the industry) were attached to the research paths which were easier for the marketers and PR releases to handle.
To some extent that's the way things must work. The venture capitalists and investors need to know where their money is going or else they aren't going to contribute. That's a sad state of society, though, when one group's ignorance is stifling another group's innovation.
The study of immunology has quite a bit of potential for worldwide medicine. ImClone managed to open the popular path with its approach of monoclonal antibodies, though that segment was somewhat sabotaged by the insider trading scandal. Let's hope that companies like Inimex, and hopefully some companies in the US, will begin to devote greater resources to understanding how the body naturally works and working with it. Many of the detrimental side effects of today's pharmaceuticals are directly related to the immune system's response to those molecules being introduced into the body. The industry has really created its own problem of side effects by buckling in to the demands of the financiers and not holding to the strict scientific principles.
Even though they're in Vancouver I sent a resume.
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
The end result is that a person's immune system no longer has to do it's job, job gets done for it. The immune system becoems weaker, they get sick more, then get more anti-biotics.
Wash, Rinse, Repeat.
Immune system just doesn't work well for fighting off certain bacteria, such as tuberculosis and antharax. Also, a lot of hospital infections happen to elderly, AIDS patients and otherwise people with weak immune system. Even with a booster, it would be better to develop substances that kill bacteria directly.
I caught some bugs in the back seat of my 72 Superbug.
Faith: n. -- That human impulse that drives them to steal appliances when the power goes out
We show that an innate defense-regulator peptide (IDR-1) was protective in mouse models of infection with important Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. When given from 48 h before to 6 h after infection, the peptide was effective by both local and systemic administration. Because protection by IDR-1 was prevented by in vivo depletion of monocytes and macrophages, but not neutrophils or B- and T-lymphocytes, we conclude that monocytes and macrophages are key effector cells. IDR-1 was not directly antimicrobial: gene and protein expression analysis in human and mouse monocytes and macrophages indicated that IDR-1, acting through mitogen-activated protein kinase and other signaling pathways, enhanced the levels of monocyte chemokines while reducing pro-inflammatory cytokine responses. To our knowledge, an innate defense regulator that counters infection by selective modulation of innate immunity without obvious toxicities has not been reported previously.
We need to develop a new, superstrong antibiotic called Placebocillin. If that doesn't work, we can always try intravenous Cephplacebo.
Man, you really need that seminar!
The article is a link to a spam blog. The original content is in this press release, which was copied without attribution. The original source and contact information were removed, six ads were added, and a false claim of copyright was made.
The people behind this are Web Doodle LLC of Missoula, MT, run (as of 2002) by Branden Long. They have other similar spam blogs.
A peptide is just a fancy name for a protein. The peptide might let you fight a superbug; it is not a superbug.
"falling antibiotics" - and immediately think of Dr. Mario?
> Because antibiotics are under threat due to an explosion of antibiotic-resistant bacteria
The antibotics are under threat--more accurately, we are under threat from those bacteria--because of poor medical practices. Not from everyone, of course, but from a tremendous number of people. (And the inefficiencies that have evolved into medicine are ridiculous, but that's another story--though one which makes it harder to rectify the real problems.) There are hundreds of hospitals that aren't strict about things like, for example, having people wash their hands before drawing blood, or, if they're putting on a new set of gloves to do it, not touching non-sterile surfaces until after they've drawn the blood. If you do that (and follow similar rules before starting an IV, etc...), you cut the number of staph infections down to almost nothing--to a tiny fraction of what they are otherwise. Just a few simple procedures...
But there are hospitals where those procedures don't happen. On a regular basis. So staph is hundreds of times more prevalent than it would be if people--people who are supposedly trained--did a few simple things as part of their working habits. I'm thinking of one Canadian hospital where a relative of mine was for a few days, but similar incompetence happens in the states, too. There was a hospital in Hawaii where I know of them managing to break six of a patient's ribs in the days before he died. You need to know which hospitals to go to, and you need to keep your wits about you when you're there.
Erm... Well, that was a bit of a rant. =)
Is this similar to how gamma globulin injections function? All I really know about them is that they're proteins that somehow work to boost the immune system, providing some kind of temporary boost in immune function. Well, a peptide is just a short protein (kinda, right?) so isn't this something along the same lines, even if it (more than likely) works in a completely different way?
SuperGerm, the result of an accident in the enemy's bio-warfare division results in the loss of 25 million of the enemy's population.
This is a very speculative and pretty dodgy article. Firstly, it's not a new concept (being healthy is the best tool for stopping infection before it starts, and, secondary to this, immunization, sanitation and quarantine).
Secondly, drugs already exist which are used in severe sepsis to boost the immune system. These drugs are very dangerous and expensive and when used inappropriately cause as many deaths as they save lives.
While it is true that antibiotic use is excessive, the situation we have is that the people who are getting the MRSA and VRE and other 'superbug' infections are frequently already immune compromised and, in whole body infection, invariably die without antibiotics - nothing else is proven to work without them.
Also, it's a peptide. You can't take it as a tablet - it's not going to be on the shelves of your supermarket - and if it is, better off eating a hard boiled egg! If anything, it will be a small scale intravenous drug for use in intensive care units, usually when all else fails, just like all these other 'breakthrough' solutions.
Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Maybe we can avoid a repeat of this...
If this works on the immune system and not directly on the pathogen, then couldn't it work on viral infections as well? And possibly other issues, like fungal infections, even?
Maybe. Maybe not. The immune system is pretty darned complex (ask any medical student - I know I hated it!), with many different pathways, and we haven't finished understanding it ourselves yet. Really TFA was rather vague ("stimulation of infection-clearing chemokines"), but I would safely assume that since TFA talks principally about its use against bacteria, this would NOT work on viruses. That's usually a whole different part of the immune system.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
'Scuse the possibly stupid question, since IANA(M)BOD (biologist/microbiologist or doctor), but what about the potential for damage to your own body as a result of a temporarily ramped up immune system?
As I understand, this peptide temporarily boosts the immune system, which then is better able to fight off the invading organism. However, there are a number of medical conditions caused by an immune system that's a little too heightened--allergies for example, or a number of other, more serious conditions. When I was 21, I contracted "Rapidly Progressive Glomerulonephritis" which is a condition where the immune system attacks the nodules in your kidneys that filter your blood. I now have a kidney transplant as a result. Lupus, I believe, is another serious condition resulting from an overactive immune system.
If we start prescribing this peptide the way we currently prescribe antibiotics, what are the chances that more than the patient's immune system will attack more than just the intended target? Also, what if, like me, you have an intentionally weakened immune system (to prevent transplant rejection), when you take this peptide? Will you be at greater risk to reject the transplant, since the transplanted organ is a foreign body?
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
From the article...
In Staph and VRE infections, although bacteria were not completely eradicated, IDR-1 significantly reduced bacteria counts and mortality, when given either 24-48 hours before or four hours after infection began. In Salmonella, the peptide offered significant protection when administered prior to infection setting in. You just need to know 24 to 48 hours in advance so that you can the medicine!
to cows!!! and I don't mean fat chicks. Make it a crime against humanity.
Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!
- the peptide has to be injected within hours of -- or even before -- the infection. That means it's only likely to be useful in a hospital setting.
- anything that boosts immune response in a non-specific way runs the risk of causing over-reaction, at least in some people. (Think about the six healthy volunteers in England who nearly died because of an unexpected immune response to the drug they were testing.) Again, that means it'll likely only be usable in a closely supervised, hospital setting.
- since the publication is appearing in one of the Nature journals, you can be pretty sure this does exactly what it says it does, and really is a breakthrough for the particular immune response in question.
- re the commenter earlier who said there was no evidence of antibiotic resistance appearing except due to hospital misuse: total claptrap. Just one example: antibiotic resistance has been documented developing in chickens and cattle due to antibiotics in the feed. Those bacteria can pass to humans. Sometimes they cause symptoms, sometimes they don't. But even when they don't, bacteria are capable of passing bits of DNA back and forth, and genes for antibiotic resistance are -- for obvious reasons -- among the likeliest to persist in bacterial populations. So, if you eat a tainted hamburger, say, or spinach, the disease-causing bacteria on that item can mix it up with the other bacteria in your gut, and there you are. Fun, huh?
So when will it become illegal to give antibiotics to livestock as a substitution for poor nourishment?
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Another comment included the abstract from the scientific publication. The research collected data with respect to a bacterial infection. While the immune system does approach bacterial and viral infections differently that is mostly because viruses invade endogenous cells and bacteria are exogenous invaders. The same system of recognizing a bacterial cell is used when recognizing an infected body cell. There are, perhaps, different cell lines of macrophages and lymphocytes to ingest bacteria as opposed to virus producing body cells but the initial system of recognition and activation is similarly alerted.
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
"Actually, stopping when you feel better is a pretty good idea. The bug is gone, and the body will take care of the rest. The more time you expose organisms to antibiotics, the more time they have to adapt to it."
.. i feel like their aren't words to describe the stupidity that exists on our little blue planet. The bottle strictly states, "take all medication even if you feel better" and some moron thinks, quote, "stopping when you feel better is a pretty good idea" hahhahaahhah... do the world a favour and by a shotgun. lmao.. i seriously didn't realize there were people that were this low on the IQ scale...
I didn't realize the world was so full of idiots. LoL
As a few other people pointed out, a boosted immune system isn't a good thing. A Healthy immune system is. No, I'm not a bioligist, Doctor, Immunologist, Rheumatologist, or Endocrinologist... but I have one of each in my contact list (Ok... so the Biologist is a friend who gave it up for Software engineering.... but I do have the others).
A heightened immune system causes Psoriasis, Psoriatic Arthritis, Osteo Arthritis, Rheumatoid arthritis, Allergies, Graves Syndrome, Crohn's Disease, and a whole host of things that range from unpleasant (allergies and Osteo Arthritis) to seriously painful (Psoriatic Arthritis) to life threatening (Crohn's and very severe psoriasis). I live it every day. It's ranging from my major discomfort with the current 5000+ pollen count on my business trip to Atlanta (where I'm sitting now) where Zyrtec is barely effective, to my Psoriasis (which gets worse when my immune system gets excitied like it is with my allergies pumped up) that leaves me with large raw bloody areas that pass for skin. Yeah... I know... you really wanted to read that while you ate dinner... welcome to my life.
Trust me... DON'T overactivate your immune system.... live well, take antibiotics only when you HAVE to and for as long as you have to, and enjoy a normal and healthy immune system.
The same system of recognizing a bacterial cell is used when recognizing an infected body cell. There are, perhaps, different cell lines of macrophages and lymphocytes to ingest bacteria as opposed to virus producing body cells but the initial system of recognition and activation is similarly alerted.
;)
I agree, but either way Immunology still sucks
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Create a new powerful drug so insect develop again more resistance and become 5 times bigger than ever?!
...in the same way that a Beowulf cluster of Rubix cubes, all running different operating systems and under constant attack from unknown attackers, does. It still provides for endless years of puzzle-solving fun!
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
Researchers Find New Superbug Weapon for Failing Antibiotics Arsenal (3/27/2007),
...
The discovery, in animal models, will be published March 25 in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
The virus that causes chicken pox can remain dormant for decades (it hides in your nerves) and then come back, which is then called shingles. In some cases it can be extremely painful, last for weeks or months, cause nerve damage, even blindness. Speaking as someone who has had shingles, I say give your boy the shot. I know that Big Pharma sometimes might not have the good of humanity as their foremost concern, but in this case fuck the chickenpox; what you are preventing is shingles when he's 50.
Has anybody ever understood that germs are a good thing? Ok, I know some people might think that I am being gross, but germs are why we are here today.
People don't understand that by having EVERYTHING, EVERY surface, EVERY food, and drink super-duper sanitized, we are doing more harm to ourselves than if we were not. Germs are what gives our immune system its effectiveness, and by reducing things it has to fight against, it loses the opportinities to recognize, learn about, and fight off foreign invaders.
People NEED to get sick. Period. There is no logical argument against that. The more sanitary we get, the sicker we become. Humans evolved through experiences with germs. If germs were as evil as a thing as we are being led to believe, then the human race, and just about all life, would not exist today. Immunity from diseases cannot be taught. Human beings can only learn how to fight off an illness by experiencing it.
Unfortunately, being anti-germ is a socially and politically correct thing to do, because your average idiot doesn't understand that you can beat your enemy be using it.
People NEED to get sick. People NEED to die. It's how he human race got to where it is, and now we are destroying the very germs we need to maintain effective immune systems. No drug can replace an immune system.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
.....I for one welcome our future peptide resistant bacterial overlords.....
As fewer and fewer of the bacteria that can harm people survive, whole generations of bacterial strains will adapt to not harm people. I look forward to a disease-free world.
Yes, exactly! Also, if God had wanted this world to never become polluted He would have provided someone to show us how to make powerful engines run on air and water too, er liquid air and steam >>> http://www.newpath4.com/enginewow.htm ! Someone who who would show the way to developing energy new form of replacement energy, and maybe the Man would have stood erect and called it >>> Imitation Energy. Once the Man was erect and understood how two inert liquids could be harnessed for warmth and cooling he might have then went on to make a BACK-TO-BACK WATERWHEEL that doesn't have any energy losses from recoil... a "waterwheel" that uses a "dry stream" of high velocity metal balls >>> ... Millenial Dawn, a waterwheel that carries its own stream of fluid with it wherever it goes in the Universe, no longer depending on a river of H2O.
t h41989200320002005.gif -Woody Riley, March 29, 2007 stepping toward the April 02, 2007 Memorial.
Perhaps God is doing gosh-a-plenty for us after all. Greetings to you sir, and thanks for that good comment. Desktop Fusion has been solved twice already. It is just taking a while to sink in that God would bring so much through just one man, kneeling, that's all. As it turned out, the kneeling part was very important.
http://www.newpath4.com/earthwaterwindfireofnewpa
Industrial Age 2 + How-to Stop Malignant Cancers.
[from above]Except that antibiotic-resistant strains are generally less virulent than the old-fashioned kind
The view that antibiotic-resistant strains are less virulent is rapidly falling out of favor with bugs such as community acquired MRSA, XDR-TB and VRE. We are seeing bugs that are as virulent if not more in the case of CA-MRSA that are wrecking havoc on human hosts as they not only are antibiotic resistant but have specific virulence factors to work in human hosts. Panton-. Valentin leukocidin (i may have spelled that incorrectly) allows CA-MRSA to hang on to human skin very nicely, and the bug is an absolute terror if it gets into the blood stream. Anyways, My point isn't to go into the nitty gritty of virulence of emerging pathogens but rather to say that we aren't seeing less virulent new bugs but rather very deadly new bugs.
Z
--I swear, it was a case of isolated idiopathic hemibalissmus
...and federal govt organizations are always under directive to speak only the party line, whatever party is in charge (in both the CDC's and FDA's case it is big pharmacy megacorps money doing the talking regardless of whether Dems or Reps control the executive and legislative branches)... not necessarily to speak proper and complete unbiased science. Oh sure, whatever they publish will always be made to look like proper science, but it will be tainted by politics and often is carefully crafted to cover up the fact that it may very well be deliberate misinformation.
I believe the real solution would be clean hospitals.
Hospitals are the places where these bugs are
A hospital where a superbug cannot survive
+ Will not infect people
+ Will not become a feeding ground for such bacteria's to multiply
+ Worse will not become a evolutionairy playground of these kind of bacteria.
If this problem isn't tackled first then in then end bacteria's win.
As Bacteria can possibly evolve quicker then our knowledge of them.
I think also there is a very simple method that might help in this battle.
And is not used as of today, as i'm aware of.
So here I go under Free GNU opensource license:
Take TL light bulbs remove the special powders inside.
It will become a harmfull UV light source.
Ofcourse you cannt use this light always.
However when no one is in a room or corridor.
Such a light source could realy clean desinfect a lot of bacteria.
Think of it as a night light cleaning system, or just before operations start.
Altough this will cleans a lot
Still surface cleaning would be required, but i'm sure this method would clean a lot.
It's also verry easy just flip a light switch. Basicly this is a verry simple low tech idea, even poor hospitals could buy some TL's based on this idea.
A side effect is that some materials also brake down under UV light, but there also lot of materials who dont do that, so thats no idea killer.
I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid. You're afraid of us. You're afraid of change.
All that is going to happen is viruses (virii?) will become stronger and stronger and eventually one will occur we cannot stop. Kinda sad to say, really.
MEF
welcome our antibiotic-resistant bacteria overlords.
They better test this on human CELLS first before human beings and 1/500th of a dose is too much, start them at 1 millionth or billionth (hormones in the body are sometimes in mg/ml amounts).
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
My apologies to any folks who've actually had Latin classes if I've misspelled the plural form of virus.
Hate to break it to you cheif, virii are simply bits of RNA that exist to make copies of themselves. This is why we have a harder time controling viral infections than bacterial and fungal. It's much easier to target and disrupt the cellular functions than manipulate molecules to latch onto the connecting ends of virii. Bacteria are living organisms that can be coopted by Virii. Both mutate over time due to changes in genetic sequence. To a certain extent, each side pushes the other forward. Only a virus that can connect to a cell will be able to enter and multiply. When a bacteria or other single cell organism changes cellular structure, only a certain set of molecules will be able to connect and affect the cell internally. We just happen to be perfect hosts for singal celled organisms and receptors for virii since we are a collection of many cells that coexist with each other. The little buggers are useful since it helps to train our bodies but what folks have issues with is really our bodies responses to the invaders.
Just a thought which has probably allready been said, but if bacteria and virii are as destructive as most germaphobes believe why are we still around? Wouldn't evolution favor them as the better species regardless of size, etc?
While I'm very inclined to agree that the misuse of antibiotics contributes to the creation of resistant bacteria/etc, I wonder about other causes. From what I've seen, both personally and as advertised, humans nowadays have taken a large slide backwards in terms of personal health (and also in many cases, hygiene, as well). I have to wonder if perhaps one of the reason these nasties are breeding so strongly is that they have a environment in overweight, over-cholesterol, underexercised, overworked average citizens whose bodies simply aren't in good shape overall due to poor diet/exercise/working-conditions/etc.
So yes, these bugs are breeding strong to begin with, then are given a nice shot of antibiotics which kills off the weaker portions, which leaves the stronger ones to transfer to the next person.
Anyone with a medical background care to comment on this?
these facts and stuffs are all well and good but..
it still doesnt explain the resistant strains surviving the slashdot selection process