http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- Attempts to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) are stymied by the fact that the disease-causing bacteria have a sophisticated mechanism for surviving dormant in infected cells. Now, a team of scientists including researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University (SBU), Weill Cornell Medical College, and The Rockefeller University has identified compounds that inhibit that mechanism - without damaging human cells. The results, described in the September 16, 2009, issue of Nature, include structural studies of how the inhibitor molecules interact with bacterial proteins, and could lead to the design of new anti-TB drugs. http://www.physorg.com/news172325694.html Medicine & Health Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:15:26 EST news172325694 As a result of dominant media coverage of new epidemic threats such as swine influenza, other infection risks receive less public attention than they deserve. http://www.physorg.com/news172306933.html Medicine & Health Wed, 16 Sep 2009 08:02:36 EST news172306933 A new study published in the September 15, 2009, issue of PLoS ONE found that patients with cavitary pulmonary tuberculosis receiving anti-TB medications supplemented with nebulized interferon-gamma have fewer bacilli in the lungs and less inflammation, thereby reducing the transmissibility of tuberculosis in the early phase of treatment. http://www.physorg.com/news172216198.html Medicine & Health Tue, 15 Sep 2009 07:20:01 EST news172216198 International guidelines for treating tuberculosis are due for specific improvements, according to two research papers published this week in the open access journal PLoS Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news172215037.html Medicine & Health Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:31:01 EST news172215037 A new study lays the groundwork for development of a cost-effective tool for studying the population structure and spread of Mycobacterium ulcerans, the causative agent of Buruli ulcer. Researchers at the Swiss Tropical Institute, Basel, Switzerland, and the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Legon, Ghana, developed SNP typing assays to systematically profile genetic diversity among M. ulcerans isolates by sequencing and comparing the genomes of selected strains. http://www.physorg.com/news171865147.html Biology Fri, 11 Sep 2009 05:30:01 EST news171865147 University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) researchers have found that the cost of preventive antibiotic tuberculosis (TB) therapy for patients infected by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is generally less expensive than the reported cost of treating newly confirmed TB cases. http://www.physorg.com/news171713160.html Medicine & Health Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:07:31 EST news171713160 According to Dutch researcher Hanneke Later-Nijland, it may be possible to shorten the duration of treatment for tuberculosis. Due to the long duration of treatment, not every patient sees it through. Partly because of this, tuberculosis is one of the most lethal diseases in developing countries. http://www.physorg.com/news171136864.html Medicine & Health Wed, 02 Sep 2009 23:10:01 EST news171136864 Urine LAM-ELISA does not appear to be useful as an independent diagnostic test for pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). A trial of the new diagnostic, described in the open access journal BMC Infectious Diseases found that it was only capable of identifying 50.7% of TB cases. http://www.physorg.com/news170657831.html Medicine & Health Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:20:01 EST news170657831 Smoking is a risk factor for active tuberculosis (TB) disease, according to a new study on TB incidence in Taiwan. http://www.physorg.com/news170307353.html Medicine & Health Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:50:01 EST news170307353 According to Dutch researcher Hanneke Later-Nijland, it may be possible to shorten the duration of treatment for tuberculosis. Due to the long duration of treatment, not every patient sees it through. Partly because of this, tuberculosis is one of the most lethal diseases in developing countries. http://www.physorg.com/news169739678.html Medicine & Health Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:20:01 EST news169739678 The emergence of new forms of tuberculosis could swell the proportion of drug-resistant cases globally, a new study has found. The finding raises concern that although TB incidence is falling in many regions, the emergence of antibiotic resistance could see virtually untreatable strains of the disease become widespread. http://www.physorg.com/news169136900.html Medicine & Health Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:29:14 EST news169136900 Use of a common antibiotic may be undercutting its utility as a first-line defense against drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). Fluoroquinolones are the most commonly prescribed class of antibiotics in the U.S. and are used to fight a number of different infections such as sinusitis and pneumonia. They are also an effective first line of defense against TB infections that show drug resistance. New research shows, however, that widespread general use of fluoroquinolones may be creating a strain of fluoroquinolone-resistant TB. http://www.physorg.com/news169121029.html Medicine & Health Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:30:01 EST news169121029 The latest drug regimens, vaccines and diagnostic tools under development to combat tuberculosis could have a potentially large impact on the disease once they become available, according to research findings published in the Aug. 3 early edition online of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.physorg.com/news168539358.html Medicine & Health Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:00:01 EST news168539358 The typical dose of a medication considered pivotal in treating tuberculosis effectively is much too low to account for modern-day physiques, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers said. http://www.physorg.com/news168154072.html Medicine & Health Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:50:02 EST news168154072 The evolution of multiple antibiotic resistances is a global and difficult problem to eradicate. Isabel Gordo, a group leader at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC), Portugal, reports in the paper published in the latest issue of PLoS Genetics, that the deleterious effect associated with the acquisition of resistance by a bacteria can be suppressed by the acquisition of a new resistance to another antibiotic. These findings have direct implications for the approaches taken to tackle the problem of multi-resistance to antibiotics and in the choice of antibiotics to be administrated to patients. http://www.physorg.com/news167633283.html Medicine & Health Fri, 24 Jul 2009 05:50:02 EST news167633283 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are proving that a camera phone can capture far more than photos of people or pets at play. They have now developed a cell phone microscope, or CellScope, that not only takes color images of malaria parasites, but of tuberculosis bacteria labeled with fluorescent markers. http://www.physorg.com/news167458162.html Biology Wed, 22 Jul 2009 05:10:00 EST news167458162 Mycobacterium tuberculosis is arguably the world's most successful infectious agent because it knows how to avoid elimination by slowing its own growth to a crawl. Now, a report in the July 10 issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, offers new insight into the bugs' talent for meager living. http://www.physorg.com/news166360612.html Biology Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:17:56 EST news166360612 Existing drugs used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease could be repositioned for use in the treatment of extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis, which kills about 2 million people each year, according to a study led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego. The rise of these strains of TB throughout the world, including industrialized countries, poses a great threat to human health. http://www.physorg.com/news165808166.html Medicine & Health Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:50:01 EST news165808166 (AP) -- The World Health Organization says a study has shown that babies with HIV could die if given a standard tuberculosis vaccine. http://www.physorg.com/news165647954.html Medicine & Health Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:19:33 EST news165647954 Treatment with anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) agents is recognized as a risk factor for tuberculosis (TB) in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn's disease, psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis. Most TB cases develop as a result of reactivation of a latent TB infection, and health authorities worldwide recommend screening for latent TB and treating patients before initiating anti-TNF treatment. http://www.physorg.com/news165598166.html Medicine & Health Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:30:01 EST news165598166 Tuberculosis (TB) is a difficult infection to treat and requires six months of multiple antibiotics to cure it. To combat the TB pandemic, a shorter and simpler drug treatment would be a huge advance since most TB occurs in resource-limited settings with poor public health infrastructures. http://www.physorg.com/news165584760.html Medicine & Health Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:20:01 EST news165584760 A team of Harvard scientists has taken an important first step toward the development of new treatments to help people with HIV battle Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) infection. In their report, appearing in the July 2009 print issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology they describe how HIV interferes with the cellular and molecular mechanisms used by the lungs to fight TB infection. This information is crucial for researchers developing treatments to help people with HIV prevent or recover from TB infection. http://www.physorg.com/news165576357.html Medicine & Health Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:40:01 EST news165576357 A fundamental question about how sugar units are strung together into long carbohydrate chains has also pinpointed a promising way to target new medicines against tuberculosis. http://www.physorg.com/news164910149.html Medicine & Health Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:10:04 EST news164910149 Scientists are focusing on a new concept in fighting airborne pathogens by manipulating what is called the "switching time," the point at which a highly regulated immune response gives way to powerful cells that specialize in fighting a specific invading bug. http://www.physorg.com/news164910078.html Medicine & Health Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:00:01 EST news164910078 A close relative of the microorganism that causes tuberculosis in humans has been found to form spores. This is a sensational finding because researchers have long been convinced that these kinds of bacteria-the mycobacteria-were incapable of forming spores. Leif Kirsebom's research group at Uppsala University now has photographic proof, obtained while working with the bacteria that causes tuberculosis in fish, to challenge this long-held belief. Their discovery, which has attracted much attention from other scientists, might constitute a new turn in the fight against human tuberculosis. http://www.physorg.com/news163700683.html Medicine & Health Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:25:07 EST news163700683 Current research suggests that Mycobacterium tuberculosis can evade the immune response. The related report by Rahman et al, "Compartmentalization of immune responses in human tuberculosis: few CD8+ effector T cells but elevated levels of FoxP3+ regulatory T cells in the granulomatous lesions," appears in the June 2009 issue of The American Journal of Pathology. http://www.physorg.com/news162214973.html Medicine & Health Fri, 22 May 2009 12:46:21 EST news162214973 New estimates of the likelihood that a latent case of tuberculosis (TB) will become active have resulted in a roughly 50 percent increase over previous estimates of the number of people needed to be screened (NNS) to prevent an active infection, limiting the cost effectiveness of screening in many Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-defined risk groups, according to an analysis conducted by experts in the epidemiology of the disease. http://www.physorg.com/news161976656.html Medicine & Health Tue, 19 May 2009 18:34:27 EST news161976656 A team of Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators has cracked one of clinical medicine's enduring mysteries - what happened to the tuberculosis vaccine. The once-effective vaccine no longer prevents the bacterial lung infection that kills more than 1.7 million people worldwide each year. http://www.physorg.com/news161964143.html Medicine & Health Tue, 19 May 2009 15:02:44 EST news161964143 (PhysOrg.com) -- The world`s leading candidate for a tuberculosis vaccine, developed at the University of Oxford, is to enter Phase IIb proof-of-concept clinical trials, making it the first TB candidate vaccine for more than 80 years to get to this advanced stage of clinical trials in infants. http://www.physorg.com/news159718199.html Medicine & Health Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:10:47 EST news159718199 Rifampin (RMP), a first-line antituberculosis drug, reaches serum concentrations well below suggested lower limits when a standard dose of 8-12mg/kg body weight is given to children. A pharmacokinetic study, published in the open access journal BMC Medicine, suggests that a higher dose of 10-20mg/kg may be more appropriate. http://www.physorg.com/news159627595.html Medicine & Health Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:00:28 EST news159627595