Source: www.nytimes.com --- Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Regulators on Wednesday said Microsoft had failed to live up to an agreement to give Windows software users better access to rival Internet browsers. ...
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BANGKOK (AP) ? Asian stock markets fell Wednesday following a slew of bleak U.S. corporate results, but losses were cushioned by a report suggesting China's manufacturing slump may be bottoming out.
HSBC Corp. said its monthly purchasing managers index rose to 49.1 points in October from 47.9 points on a 100-point scale on which numbers below 50 indicate a contraction. The result means that China's manufacturing shrank again, but at a slower rate than the previous month.
The results raised the possibility that market losses could "stabilize and perhaps even turn around," Dariusz Kowalczyk of Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong said in a market commentary. "This is an unusually large gain for this time of year, and the level represents a three month high."
Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.3 percent to 8,985.46. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.6 percent to 1,914.55. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was 0.2 percent lower at 21,663.57. Benchmarks in Singapore and mainland China rose.
U.S. stocks sank Tuesday after some grim corporate reports. Big-name companies like Xerox and 3M reported lower revenue for the third quarter, while chemical maker DuPont said it will have to cut jobs and other expenses to make up for weak demand. UPS, the world's largest package-delivery company, warned that the pace of global growth remains uneven.
The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 1.8 percent to 13,102.53 ? its lowest level in nearly seven weeks. The Standard & Poor's 500 lost 1.4 percent to 1,413.11. The Nasdaq composite index lost 0.9 percent to 2,990.46.
Benchmark oil for December delivery was up 44 cents to $87.11 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.98 to finish at $86.67 per barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.
In currencies, the euro rose to $1.2989 from $1.2976 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar fell to 79.84 yen from 79.91 yen.
___
Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-stocks-limit-losses-china-manufacturing-024815352--finance.html
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Never mind the bitter end ? it is the bitter beginning of an infection that triggers an immune response.
We know that taste receptors on the tongue can detect bitter foods, but it turns out that there are also identical taste receptors in the upper airway. Noam Cohen at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and his team think they know why.
They grew cell cultures from sinus tissue samples collected from surgical patients, and found that bitter taste receptors in the tissue picked up the presence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a bacterium that can cause pneumonia. The sinus tissue responded by producing nitric oxide to kill the invading microbes.
"Certain people have strong innate defences against these bacteria, which is based on their ability to detect bitterness," says Cohen. "Others who don't really 'taste' these bitter compounds have a weakened defence."
The research could lead to nasal sprays designed to activate the taste receptors and boost people's natural defences against sinus infections.
"This is probably the most exciting clinical link found for bitter receptors," says Liquan Huang of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who was not involved in the study. "However, further work is needed to see if this can be translated into treatments."
Journal reference: Journal of Clinical Investigation, doi.org/jj4
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BEIRUT (AP) ? Jennifer Shedid had just arrived home from school and she was hungry. As she asked her older sister what she could eat, a massive explosion shook their entire block and turned the glass of their 4th floor apartment into flying knives that slashed 10-year-old Jennifer from head to toe.
Their father Richard was climbing the stairs to the apartment on his way back from buying bread for the family when the car bomb struck on Friday afternoon less than 20 meters (yards) away, shaking doors and shattering his home.
He grabbed his bleeding daughter from the arms of her older sister Jozianne and rushed her downstairs.
"As I carried her down the stairs, she was trembling and telling me: 'Please dad rescue me,'" the father told The Associated Press on Monday.
A neighbor helped him carry Jennifer and a soldier then took the girl and whisked her to an ambulance that sped off to the hospital. An AP picture, published in newspapers around the world, showed the girl being carried out with deep head and face wounds and her sneakers soaked red with blood.
"As we were in the ambulance, she was better but losing lots of blood," said her father.
The blast, which hit the Shedids' narrow residential street in Beirut's predominantly Christian neighborhood of Achrafieh, targeted Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan, a top intelligence official who was one of the most powerful opponents of Syria in Lebanon. He was killed along with his bodyguard and a female civilian ? a mother of three. It has sparked angry accusations from Syria's opponents in Lebanon that Damascus was behind the bombings.
Jennifer was one of the dozens wounded in the blast.
On Monday, she lay in a hospital with more than 300 stitches in her body, 90 of them in her face and head while and about 50 more on her hands. Her head was shaved and her face was swollen.
Smiling faintly with a monitor behind her showing her heart rate and blood pressure, Jennifer blew kisses to visiting reporters and called out "hi, hi."
Antoine Younan, the doctor leading the team treating Jennifer, showed reporters on Monday a picture of the girl when she arrived at the hospital.
"Her body was riddled with glass wounds," he said. Younan said Jennifer is in stable condition. The veins of her right hands, severely damaged by the glass, are healing and she moved her fingers for the first time on Monday. She underwent operations to remove the glass, repair her veins and stitch her wounds.
Jennifer's 17-year-old sister Jozianne, sitting in the lobby of the hospital, recounted the scene in their home just after the blast struck.
Jennifer was on the floor bleeding while Jozianne said she was thrown by the power of the blast and landed under a China cabinet where she suffered minor injuries. She immediately got up to help her younger sister.
"As I opened my eyes I saw that much of the apartment was turned upside down," she told reporters. "I stood up and started shouting 'Jenny, Jenny' but no one answered. Then I found her next to a couch and covered with debris that fell from the ceiling," said Jozianne, who had a bandage on her left brow from a glass injury.
"I screamed for help but no one answered," said Jozianne, wearing a cross around her neck. "I carried her and kept talking to her. I did not want her to go unconscious. She was holding me saying: 'Help me.'"
Jennifer's mother Nisrin was at work on the other side of the city in the commercial neighborhood of Hamra when she received a message on her phone about an explosion in her neighborhood Achrafieh. She jumped into a taxi, but had to get out about a mile away because cars were kept away from the scene to clear the roads for ambulances.
The cellphone network was overloaded and she could not get through to her husband or children. But she did receive a call from her daughter's school that let her know she had arrived home in her school bus.
She ran toward her apartment.
"I wanted to be with the children so that they would not be afraid," she said.
When she arrived at her street, security forces prevented her from reaching the building because the area was cordoned off for an investigation of the car bomb.
Then she saw something that made her collapse.
"As I looked at the street, I saw Jennifer's shoes covered with blood," Nisrin said. "I bit my tongue and fainted."
She was treated by a paramedic. When she asked him about her daughters, he took her to Jozianne.
"When I saw the blood on Jozianne's clothes, I knew that Jennifer's injuries were serious," Nisrin said. She then received a call from the hospital where Jennifer was being treated and headed over.
A few hours after she arrived, Jennifer was taken out of the operating room and she saw her daughter wearing a green hospital gown.
"I looked at her. My heart broke," the mother told journalists outside the Intensive Care Unit where Jennifer has been since Friday.
Jennifer, a top student in her 5th grade class, loves drawing and taking pictures with the cell phones of her parents and sister. She is no fan of science or math but loves reading and sports.
Her favorite cartoon is Tom and Jerry.
On Sundays, she goes with her Maronite Christian family to church for prayers.
On Monday, Jennifer opened her eyes from the latest operation and started communicating for the first time.
"My happiness today is beyond explanation," said her mother Nisrin.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/beirut-girl-hurt-car-bomb-needed-300-stitches-185300534.html
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So I saw this game on an upcoming list of action shooters. It's in open beta, and I must say it's very impressive. It's not a run and gun shooter. You need use cover, communicate, and push objectives. It's also a free game, and has in-game VOIP system that works flawlessly. Even though it's F2P it's not pay to win, and everything can be unlocked by just playing. I really think it could be a lot fun for TPG gamers, and no one has a spend a dime to play it. Added a few videos so you can see how game works.
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A study by Susan Steck of the Arnold School of Public Health finds that a high intake of flavonoids, a group of compounds found in plants, may lower the risk for highly aggressive prostate cancer.
In a study of more than 10,000 men and women, individuals who consumed more of plant compounds called flavonoids?especially one type that is most abundant in apples?were less likely to die from heart disease or develop a variety of chronic diseases, including lung cancer, asthma, stroke and diabetes.
Some studies have shown that the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer decline as consumption of flavonoids rises, but other studies have failed to show a protective effect of the plant compounds.
?Incorporating more plant-based foods and beverages, such as fruits, vegetables, herbs and tea, into the diet may offer some protection against aggressive prostate cancer,? said Steck, an associate professor at the Arnold School and an affiliated scholar with the Center for Research in Health Disparities.
A flavonoid rich diet ? including apples and oranges ? may cut the chances of developing disease by up to 40 percent in men. Previous data supports the growing experimental evidence for neuroprotective effects of these compounds, specifically anthocyanins.
Steck presented her findings at the International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research. The annual event is sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research, whose mission is to prevent and cure cancer through research, education, communication and collaboration.
Prior preclinical studies have shown that flavonoids have beneficial effects against prostate cancer, but few studies have examined the effect of flavonoids on prostate cancer in humans.
Steck and her colleagues used data from 920 African-American men and 977 white men in the North Carolina-Louisiana Prostate Cancer Project who were newly diagnosed with prostate cancer. Participants completed a self-reported dietary history questionnaire to assess flavonoid intake, which was measured using the U.S. Department of Agriculture?s 2011 Database for the Flavonoid Content of Selected Foods.
Men with the highest total intake of flavonoids had a 25 percent lower risk for aggressive prostate cancer compared with those men with the lowest flavonoid intake.
?We found that higher total flavonoid intake was associated with reduced odds for aggressive prostate cancer in both African-American and European-American men, but no individual subclass of flavonoids appeared to be protective independently, suggesting that it is important to consume a variety of plant-based foods in the diet, rather than to focus on one specific type of flavonoid or flavonoid-rich food,? Steck said.
In addition, the risk for aggressive prostate cancer was even lower in those men younger than 65 and in current smokers with the highest levels of flavonoid intake. Dietary questionnaire results revealed that citrus fruits and juices, such as oranges and grapefruits, tea, grapes, strawberries, onions and cooked greens were the top contributors to total flavonoid intake among the participants. ?The results support public health recommendations and guidelines from organizations such as the American Institute for Cancer Research to consume a more plant-based diet,? Steck said. ?In particular, consuming more flavonoid-rich foods may be beneficial for those people who are at increased risk for cancer.?
April McCarthy is a community journalist playing an active role reporting and analyzing world events to advance our health and eco-friendly initiatives.
??
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Source: http://www.trueactivist.com/aggressive-cancers-hate-plant-based-diets/
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Public release date: 22-Oct-2012
Share ] Contact: Jim Sliwa
jsliwa@asmusa.org
202-942-9297
American Society for Microbiology
Specific Bacterial Species May Initiate, Maintain Crohn's
Patients newly diagnosed with pediatric Crohn's disease had significantly different levels of certain types of bacteria in their intestinal tracts than age-matched controls, according to a paper in the October Journal of Clinical Microbiology. The work may ultimately lead to treatment involving manipulation of the intestinal bacteria.
The research grew out of many years' study of gastrointestinal diseases, a particular focus being the role of mucus-associated bacteria in inflammatory conditions, says Hazel M. Mitchell of the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, the principle investigator on the study.
"We deliberately chose to examine children newly diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, as we thought this would increase our chances of detecting species that may be involved in initiating Crohn's disease," she says, noting that confounding factors potentially affecting intestinal flora such as antibiotic or anti-inflammatory intake, smoking, or alcohol consumption, are less likely to be present in such children than in adults.
Of particular interest was the finding that one group of bacteria, known as Proteobacteria, was present at higher levels in mild cases, as compared with moderate to severe disease, and controls. That finding, "suggests that this group may play a role in initiation of the disease," says Mitchell, who credits her colleague Nadeem O. Kaakoush with much of the thought and laboratory work behind the study. "The latter finding is consistent with recent studies showing that members of the Proteobacteria, including E. coli and Campylobacter concisus may play a role in initiating Crohn's disease," says Mitchell.
There had been an indication that such was the case, prior to the current study, when the team's earlier research revealed C. concisus to be present in children who already had Crohn's, but not in healthy controls. That information in hand, the researchers grew C. concisus from biopsy specimens from Crohn's children and examined their ability to attach and invade intestinal cells, as compared with strains grown from patients with gastroenteritis, and healthy controls. That research showed that only specific C. concisus strains could invade intestinal cells, that these strains were associated with Crohn's, and that they carried a plasmid which was absent from noninvasive C. concisus strains.
But studies examining dysbiosis (out of balance microbial populations) in adults with Crohn's were inconsistent. That led Mitchell and her colleages to conduct the current study in children with newly diagnosed Crohn's. The results support the theory that Crohn's is linked to a gastrointestinal imbalance in the microbiota, says Mitchell. The bacteria associated with mild disease, including C. concisus, may be initiating infection, she says.
(N.O. Kaakoush, A.S. Day, K.D. Huinao, S.T. Leach, D.A. Lemberg, S.E. Dowd, and H.M. Mitchell, 2012. Microbial dysbiosis in pediatric patients with Crohn's Disease. J. Clin Microbiol. 50:3258-3266.)
Download a copy of the article at http://bit.ly/asmtip1012a
Bacteria Involved in Sewer Pipe Corrosion Identified
Microbes corrode sewer pipes from the inside, a process that can lead to spills, bad odors, disease outbreaks, and the need for costly repairs. In a first step towards reducing the corrosion, researchers have identified the culprit microbes. The research is published in the October Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
Surprisingly, they found two different communities, on the wall and the ceiling of the pipes, respectively, says first author Barry Cayford of the University of Queensland. "This separation into two different communities suggests that different types of corrosion may be taking place, and this needs to be considered in the management of the problem," says Cayford.
Earlier work had suggested that Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, microbes that oxidize hydrogen sulfide to sulfuric acid, were key constituents of the sewer pipe corrosion community. Cayford and his colleagues found that the ceiling species were instead dominated by bacteria from the genera Acidiphilium and Mycobacterium. The former species are known to grow in high acidity, where they oxidize sulfur compounds to sulfuric acid. The wall-associated genera included Xanthomonadales, Burkholderiales, Sphingobacteriales, and others.
Besides bacteria, a range of eukaryotic sequences were detected, but at low abundance, and mostly in wall-associated samples.
"The research resulted from complaints about the smell of sewer systems from people living near large sewer pipes," says Cayford. The complaints forced a major reduction in sewer pipe ventilation, which had been a method for controlling corrosion, he explains. That was the germ of the research. Cayford and his collaborators decided to study the microbiology of the corrosion, in an effort to find other ways to mitigate the problem.
"We hypothesized that we could improve on the limited knowledge of this environment through the use of state-of-the-art microbial ecology tools," says Cayford. His team sequenced the 16S ribosomal RNA genes of the microbes using high-throughput molecular ecology analysis. "The approach provides a much more detailed account of the microbes present than had been possible before." But the current research is only the first step, he says. "We aim to build on this work to deliver a much improved model of sewer corrosion."
(B.I. Cayford, P.G. Dennis, J. Keller, G.W. Tyson, and P.L. Bond, 2012. High-throughput amplicon sequencing reveals distinct communities within a corroding concrete sewer system. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 78:7160-7162.)
Download a copy of the article at http://bit.ly/asmtip1012b
Antibodies to Immune Cells Protect Eyes In Pseudomonas Infection
Contact lenses, particularly the extended wear variety, render wearers vulnerable to eye infections from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These infections can cause severe damage, including blindness. Treating the eye with antibodies to the inflammatory immune compound interleukin-17 (IL-17) reduced eye damage and the number of bacteria in a mouse model. The research is published in the October Infection and Immunology.
The onslaught of Pseudomonas infection of the eye is often swift, and is aggravated by the bacterium's resistance to antibiotics. "Pseudomonas is everywhere in the environment, and can be unwittingly introduced into the lens cleaning solution, or directly onto the contact lens, so everyone who uses contact lenses is at risk," says principal investigator Gregory P. Priebe of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, and Boston Children's Hospital.
Immune cells known as neutrophils are a major cause of the eye damage that ensues from Pseudomonas infection. IL-17 is involved in attracting neutrophils to the infected tissues. They are the vanguard of immune attack, arriving at a site of infection within an hour, trapping, and ingesting pathogens. In their pathogen-killing function, they also release noxious substances, notably elastase, an enzyme that can chew up tissues, and superoxide, which is converted into hypochlorous acid, more commonly known as chlorine bleach. Thus, the ensuing eye damage is not surprising.
Nonetheless, the strategy of blocking these pathogen killing cells risked reducing the immune system's bacteria-killing function, says Priebe. "Surprisingly, just the opposite was seen: blocking IL-17 with antibodies led both to fewer neutrophils in the eye, and to fewer bacteria," says Priebe. Thus, he says, the research may lead to effective treatments.
"We thought that blocking IL-17 infection might worsen eye infections, but found just the opposite,' says Priebe . "Interestingly, this is a common pattern in eye infections. The body's responses that make the damage worse are often the same things needed to limit infections in other tissues, such as the lung."
(T.S. Zaidi, T. Zaidi, G.B. Pier, and G.P. Priebe, 2012. Topical neutralization of interleukin-17 during experimental Pseudomonas aeruginosa corneal infection promotes bacterial clearance and reduces pathology. Infect. Immun. 80:3706-3712.)
Download a copy of article at http://bit.ly/asmtip1012c
Dangerous Form of MRSA, Endemic In Many US Hospitals, Increasing in UK
Prevalence of a particularly dangerous form of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) jumped three-fold in just two years, in hospitals in the United Kingdom, according to a paper in the October 2012 Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
This particular pathogen emerged in the US in 1998, and "is endemic within many US hospitals," an observation which led to the current study being conducted, says coauthor Gopal Rao of Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, Middlesex, UK.
The MRSA in question contains a toxin called Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL), which destroys leukocytes (a type of white blood cell), kills skin and mucus membranes, and confers increased virulence. In some cases, they cause invasive disease, most notably necrotizing hemorrhagic pneumonia, which has a high mortality rate.
The United Kingdom's Health Protection Agency first reported that PVL-methicillin resistant S. aureus (PVL-MRSA) was an emerging disease in UK in 2005. While most of the MRSA gets transmitted from one person to another within the hospital, most patients infected with MRSA containing the PVL toxin genes acquired it outside of the hospital ("community acquired" MRSA). The Department of Health in UK mandated screening for MRSA in 2008.
Rao and collaborators set out to find out how many patients entering the hospital carried community-acquired MRSA, especially that containing the dangerous PVL genes. During the study period, cases of community-acquired PVL-MRSA jumped threefold, from 0.07 percent to 0.22 percent, while the numbers of patients with hospital-acquired MRSA dropped from 4.6 percent to 2.8 percent. One particular clone of PVL-MRSA, which also carries resistance to clindamycin and tetracycline is particularly worrisome, the researchers note.
Most of the patients carrying PVL-containing strains are males. The study included 56,000 patients.
(N.M. Pantelides, G.G. Rao, A. Charlett, and A.M. Kearns, 2012. Preadmission screening of adults highlights previously unrecognized carriage of Panton-Valentine leukocidin-positive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in London: a cause for concern? J. Clin. Microbiol. 50:3168-3171.)
Download a copy of the article at http://bit.ly/asmtip1012d
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Public release date: 22-Oct-2012 Share ] Contact: Jim Sliwa
jsliwa@asmusa.org
202-942-9297
American Society for Microbiology
Specific Bacterial Species May Initiate, Maintain Crohn's
Patients newly diagnosed with pediatric Crohn's disease had significantly different levels of certain types of bacteria in their intestinal tracts than age-matched controls, according to a paper in the October Journal of Clinical Microbiology. The work may ultimately lead to treatment involving manipulation of the intestinal bacteria.
The research grew out of many years' study of gastrointestinal diseases, a particular focus being the role of mucus-associated bacteria in inflammatory conditions, says Hazel M. Mitchell of the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, the principle investigator on the study.
"We deliberately chose to examine children newly diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, as we thought this would increase our chances of detecting species that may be involved in initiating Crohn's disease," she says, noting that confounding factors potentially affecting intestinal flora such as antibiotic or anti-inflammatory intake, smoking, or alcohol consumption, are less likely to be present in such children than in adults.
Of particular interest was the finding that one group of bacteria, known as Proteobacteria, was present at higher levels in mild cases, as compared with moderate to severe disease, and controls. That finding, "suggests that this group may play a role in initiation of the disease," says Mitchell, who credits her colleague Nadeem O. Kaakoush with much of the thought and laboratory work behind the study. "The latter finding is consistent with recent studies showing that members of the Proteobacteria, including E. coli and Campylobacter concisus may play a role in initiating Crohn's disease," says Mitchell.
There had been an indication that such was the case, prior to the current study, when the team's earlier research revealed C. concisus to be present in children who already had Crohn's, but not in healthy controls. That information in hand, the researchers grew C. concisus from biopsy specimens from Crohn's children and examined their ability to attach and invade intestinal cells, as compared with strains grown from patients with gastroenteritis, and healthy controls. That research showed that only specific C. concisus strains could invade intestinal cells, that these strains were associated with Crohn's, and that they carried a plasmid which was absent from noninvasive C. concisus strains.
But studies examining dysbiosis (out of balance microbial populations) in adults with Crohn's were inconsistent. That led Mitchell and her colleages to conduct the current study in children with newly diagnosed Crohn's. The results support the theory that Crohn's is linked to a gastrointestinal imbalance in the microbiota, says Mitchell. The bacteria associated with mild disease, including C. concisus, may be initiating infection, she says.
(N.O. Kaakoush, A.S. Day, K.D. Huinao, S.T. Leach, D.A. Lemberg, S.E. Dowd, and H.M. Mitchell, 2012. Microbial dysbiosis in pediatric patients with Crohn's Disease. J. Clin Microbiol. 50:3258-3266.)
Download a copy of the article at http://bit.ly/asmtip1012a
Bacteria Involved in Sewer Pipe Corrosion Identified
Microbes corrode sewer pipes from the inside, a process that can lead to spills, bad odors, disease outbreaks, and the need for costly repairs. In a first step towards reducing the corrosion, researchers have identified the culprit microbes. The research is published in the October Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
Surprisingly, they found two different communities, on the wall and the ceiling of the pipes, respectively, says first author Barry Cayford of the University of Queensland. "This separation into two different communities suggests that different types of corrosion may be taking place, and this needs to be considered in the management of the problem," says Cayford.
Earlier work had suggested that Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans, microbes that oxidize hydrogen sulfide to sulfuric acid, were key constituents of the sewer pipe corrosion community. Cayford and his colleagues found that the ceiling species were instead dominated by bacteria from the genera Acidiphilium and Mycobacterium. The former species are known to grow in high acidity, where they oxidize sulfur compounds to sulfuric acid. The wall-associated genera included Xanthomonadales, Burkholderiales, Sphingobacteriales, and others.
Besides bacteria, a range of eukaryotic sequences were detected, but at low abundance, and mostly in wall-associated samples.
"The research resulted from complaints about the smell of sewer systems from people living near large sewer pipes," says Cayford. The complaints forced a major reduction in sewer pipe ventilation, which had been a method for controlling corrosion, he explains. That was the germ of the research. Cayford and his collaborators decided to study the microbiology of the corrosion, in an effort to find other ways to mitigate the problem.
"We hypothesized that we could improve on the limited knowledge of this environment through the use of state-of-the-art microbial ecology tools," says Cayford. His team sequenced the 16S ribosomal RNA genes of the microbes using high-throughput molecular ecology analysis. "The approach provides a much more detailed account of the microbes present than had been possible before." But the current research is only the first step, he says. "We aim to build on this work to deliver a much improved model of sewer corrosion."
(B.I. Cayford, P.G. Dennis, J. Keller, G.W. Tyson, and P.L. Bond, 2012. High-throughput amplicon sequencing reveals distinct communities within a corroding concrete sewer system. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 78:7160-7162.)
Download a copy of the article at http://bit.ly/asmtip1012b
Antibodies to Immune Cells Protect Eyes In Pseudomonas Infection
Contact lenses, particularly the extended wear variety, render wearers vulnerable to eye infections from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These infections can cause severe damage, including blindness. Treating the eye with antibodies to the inflammatory immune compound interleukin-17 (IL-17) reduced eye damage and the number of bacteria in a mouse model. The research is published in the October Infection and Immunology.
The onslaught of Pseudomonas infection of the eye is often swift, and is aggravated by the bacterium's resistance to antibiotics. "Pseudomonas is everywhere in the environment, and can be unwittingly introduced into the lens cleaning solution, or directly onto the contact lens, so everyone who uses contact lenses is at risk," says principal investigator Gregory P. Priebe of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, and Boston Children's Hospital.
Immune cells known as neutrophils are a major cause of the eye damage that ensues from Pseudomonas infection. IL-17 is involved in attracting neutrophils to the infected tissues. They are the vanguard of immune attack, arriving at a site of infection within an hour, trapping, and ingesting pathogens. In their pathogen-killing function, they also release noxious substances, notably elastase, an enzyme that can chew up tissues, and superoxide, which is converted into hypochlorous acid, more commonly known as chlorine bleach. Thus, the ensuing eye damage is not surprising.
Nonetheless, the strategy of blocking these pathogen killing cells risked reducing the immune system's bacteria-killing function, says Priebe. "Surprisingly, just the opposite was seen: blocking IL-17 with antibodies led both to fewer neutrophils in the eye, and to fewer bacteria," says Priebe. Thus, he says, the research may lead to effective treatments.
"We thought that blocking IL-17 infection might worsen eye infections, but found just the opposite,' says Priebe . "Interestingly, this is a common pattern in eye infections. The body's responses that make the damage worse are often the same things needed to limit infections in other tissues, such as the lung."
(T.S. Zaidi, T. Zaidi, G.B. Pier, and G.P. Priebe, 2012. Topical neutralization of interleukin-17 during experimental Pseudomonas aeruginosa corneal infection promotes bacterial clearance and reduces pathology. Infect. Immun. 80:3706-3712.)
Download a copy of article at http://bit.ly/asmtip1012c
Dangerous Form of MRSA, Endemic In Many US Hospitals, Increasing in UK
Prevalence of a particularly dangerous form of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) jumped three-fold in just two years, in hospitals in the United Kingdom, according to a paper in the October 2012 Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
This particular pathogen emerged in the US in 1998, and "is endemic within many US hospitals," an observation which led to the current study being conducted, says coauthor Gopal Rao of Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, Middlesex, UK.
The MRSA in question contains a toxin called Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL), which destroys leukocytes (a type of white blood cell), kills skin and mucus membranes, and confers increased virulence. In some cases, they cause invasive disease, most notably necrotizing hemorrhagic pneumonia, which has a high mortality rate.
The United Kingdom's Health Protection Agency first reported that PVL-methicillin resistant S. aureus (PVL-MRSA) was an emerging disease in UK in 2005. While most of the MRSA gets transmitted from one person to another within the hospital, most patients infected with MRSA containing the PVL toxin genes acquired it outside of the hospital ("community acquired" MRSA). The Department of Health in UK mandated screening for MRSA in 2008.
Rao and collaborators set out to find out how many patients entering the hospital carried community-acquired MRSA, especially that containing the dangerous PVL genes. During the study period, cases of community-acquired PVL-MRSA jumped threefold, from 0.07 percent to 0.22 percent, while the numbers of patients with hospital-acquired MRSA dropped from 4.6 percent to 2.8 percent. One particular clone of PVL-MRSA, which also carries resistance to clindamycin and tetracycline is particularly worrisome, the researchers note.
Most of the patients carrying PVL-containing strains are males. The study included 56,000 patients.
(N.M. Pantelides, G.G. Rao, A. Charlett, and A.M. Kearns, 2012. Preadmission screening of adults highlights previously unrecognized carriage of Panton-Valentine leukocidin-positive methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in London: a cause for concern? J. Clin. Microbiol. 50:3168-3171.)
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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/asfm-tft102212.php
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