Research Focuses On Antibiotic-resistant Bacterium And Touches On Longevit

Research Focuses On Antibiotic-resistant Bacterium And Touches On Longevity

HOUSTON (Nov. 5, 2004) -- With the help of a tiny roundworm, microbiologist Danielle Garsin searches for weak spots in a tenacious bacterium that thwarts antibiotic attack while threatening hospital patients. Her research, which has uncovered a tantalizing potential connection between longevity and resistance to infection, earned Garsin one of only 12 grants awarded in 2004 under the Ellison Foundation New Scholars Program in Global Infectious Diseases.


The assistant professor in the Medical School Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics will receive $50,000 a year for four years to continue her work on Enterococcus faecalis and the roundworm C. elegans.

“E. faecalis is the second or third most common cause of infections that patients contract in hospitals,” Garsin said. “It causes bacteremia (blood infection), urinary tract infections and endocarditis (heart infection) and many strains carry resistance to antibiotics.”

The bacterium employs several methods for sharing DNA, which is how it acquires and spreads traits such as antibiotic resistance. Recently, cases of enterococci spreading vancomycin resistance to other bacteria have been documented. As vancomycin is one of the last antibiotics available to treat infections resistant to everything else, this is of great concern....cont'd

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041108022405.htm

antibiotics???

Amazing how those little buggers (the bacteria) keep outsmarting modern medicine, isn't it??

or they take antibiotics they don't need

which doesn't even address the amounts of antibiotics in meat that are regularly fed to livestock

Gaia is pretty effective about doing a "go round" our technology IMO

but building a resistance to virus will do wonders for your longevity so that's a no brainer

i firmly believe part of the reason kids get so sick so often these days is because mom's sterilize their homes and kids never play in the dirt anymore.

The health inspector that checks out my biz told me to throw away the "anti bacterial" hand soap i had onsite. He says it kills the friendly bacteria along with the bad ones, but the bad ones grow back 4 times as fast....