Gene could be factor in frequent cold sores

People who get frequent flare-ups of cold sores may have variations of an obscure gene, according to a study published this week in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. This is the first gene to be associated with cold sore outbreaks.
Cold sores are the lesions caused by herpes simplex virus type 1, a persistent and common virus. The sores usually appear on the lip, around the mouth and sometimes on the nose, chin and fingers. Apart from the distress the sores can cause by their appearance, they can be painful and stick around for two weeks.
The sores also are infectious. Once a person has the virus, there’s no cure or way to predict or prevent the cold sores. The virus remains in the body and then unpredictably flares up in an outbreak of sores.  There are medications to relieve the symptoms.
Herpes simplex virus type 1 is different from genital herpes, which is herpes simplex virus type 2.
When will we see a herpes cure?
Researchers from University of Utah and the University of Massachusetts say the gene behind the frequent cold sores is C21orf91. Everyone has the gene, but there are two variations of the C21orf91 that are associated with the greater frequency of the outbreaks.
This doesn’t mean that people who have one of these two gene variations will automatically get a slew of cold sores.
“Twenty-one percent of the trait is due to genetic factors,” said study author, Dr. John Kriesel who is also a research associate professor of infectious diseases at the University of Utah School of Medicine. This means that 79% is due to other factors such as the virus strain and environmental factors.
Kriesel and the co-authors reached their findings after analysing data from the gene sequences from 618 study participants - half of whom had cold sore outbreaks.
“The hope is if we can figure out what this protein is doing, we’ll find insight,” Kriesel said.  “There are other forms of herpes that are much more serious than cold sores.”
Post by: Madison Park - CNNhealth.com Writer/Producer

Bacterial Friend?

Bdellovibrio bacteria act as 'living antibiotic' against important human pathogen

Scientists have found that a predatory bacterium significantly reduces the number of salmonella bacteria in the guts of live chickens, suggesting that the bacterium has potential to be used as a "living antibiotic."

Researchers at the University of Nottingham found that Bdellovibrio reduced the numbers of Salmonella by 90 percent and the birds remained healthy, grew well, and were generally in good condition.

Salmonella likes to grow in the guts of poultry and other animals and can cause food poisoning in humans.

Dr Laura Hobley said "Bdellovibrio has the potential to be used as a living antibiotic against some major human and animal pathogens, such as E. coli and other so-called Gram-negative bacteria."

She continued "We think that Bdellovibrio could be particularly useful as a topical treatment for wounds or foot rots but we wanted to know what might happen if it is ingested - either deliberately as a treatment, or by accident."

Previous studies have shown that Bdellovibrio is very effective at invading and killing other bacterial cells in a test tube.

And now it looks likely to provide an alternative to antibiotic medicines at a time when bacterial resistance is a significant problem to human and animal health.

Reference:R. J. Atterbury, L. Hobley, R. Till, C. Lambert, M. J. Capeness, T. R. Lerner, A. K. Fenton, P. Barrow, R. E. Sockett. Studying the effects of orally administered Bdellovibrio on the wellbeing and Salmonella colonization of young chicks.. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2011; DOI: 10.1128/AEM.00426-11


Professor Douglas Kell, Chief Executive, BBSRC said "Once we have understood the fundamental nature of an extraordinary organism such as Bdellovibrio, it makes sense that we should look at potential uses for it. The impact of bacterial infections on human and animal health is significant and since antibiotic resistance is a major issue, alternatives from nature may become increasingly important."

http://media.eurekalert.org/release_graphics/Bdellovibrio1_27_04_highres.jpg

NEW MRSA STRAIN IN MILK

Conventional MRSA is most commonly found in hospitals

Friday June 3,2011

By Dana Gloger

BRITISH milk has become infected with the deadly MRSA superbug for the first time. The strain is resistant to antibiotics and cannot be detected by standard tests because its genetic make-up is so unusual.

The bug is already infecting humans, with 15 cases in England and 12 in Scotland. Scientists at Cambridge University discovered the bug in cow’s milk while researching an unrelated infection in the animals’ udders.

They found evidence of humans and cows with exactly the same sub-type of the new MRSA strain, which they said suggested transmission between animals and people. It is thought the bug has been spread by farm workers.

Conventional MRSA is most commonly found in hospitals but the scientists, whose study is published today in medical journal The Lancet, discovered that the DNA of the new strain is different.

This means existing tests cannot pick it up. Scientists are now frantically trying to develop a new testing system. Experts are still attempting to assess the public health risk but have said there is no threat to the safety of milk and dairy products because pasteurising should kill the bug.

Dr Mark Holmes, who led the research, said cases of the new strain were rising. “But we are fairly sure in the last three or four years there haven’t been any deaths attributable to this new MRSA.”

The Soil Association called for an immediate ban on the routine use of antibiotics on animals “even if that means milk has to cost a few pennies more. That would be a very small price to pay for maintaining the efficacy of these life-saving drugs.”

Read more: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/250483/New-MRSA-superbug-found-in-milkNew-MRSA-superbug-found-in-milk#ixzz1OAGjVKl1

The Insanity Virus

Schizophrenia has long been blamed on bad genes or even bad parents. Wrong, says a growing group of psychiatrists. The real culprit, they claim, is a virus that lives entwined in every person's DNA.

Link: The Insanity Virus

Bacteria To Blame In Asthma Attacks In Children

Doctors have long known that viral infections can bring about asthma attacks and the shortness of breath, coughing, and wheezing associated with them. But while viral infections cannot be treated, scientists at the Danish Paediatric Asthma Centre (DPAC) at the University of Copenhagen and Gentofte Hospital have discovered that treatable bacterial infections can also cause asthma attacks. The discovery could revolutionise treatment.
The study examined 361 children between the ages of four weeks and three years to determine the presence of viral and bacterial infections during severe asthma attacks. The results conclude that the number of attacks was just as high in children with bacterial respiratory infections as in those with viral infections.
Using antibiotics to treat asthma attacks?

"This indicates that bacteria can exacerbate asthma symptoms even if they aren't infected with a virus," Professor Bisgaard says. "The findings open up an entirely new method for treating severe asthma attacks. We can't treat viral infections, but scientists will now look into whether treatment with antibiotics can help children when they have an asthma attack if they are also suffering from a bacterial infection. Being able to use antibiotics to treat asthma attacks in children would be revolutionary.”

The effects of antibiotics in treating asthma attacks will now be examined in large-scale, clinical study by the DPAC.
Source: University of Copenhagen
Friday, October 08, 2010

Papillomavirus infection and the link with cancer

Papillomaviridae are small non-encapsulated viruses with a double-stranded DNA circular genome of approximately 8 kbp. Papillomavirus (PV) DNA has been recovered from the skin and lesions of many mammalian species. Moreover, PVs or their genetic material have also been found in birds and turtles. Many PVs seem to cause asymptomatic infections and have been recovered from the healthy skin of many mammals. Negative results in certain mammals could reflect inadequacies in experimental techniques or extinction/sorting events in certain host species. Other PVs induce conspicuous infections of the epithelia and give rise to hyperkeratotic lesions, such as plantar and hand warts in humans caused by HPV1, oral warts in dogs caused by CPV1 and horny warts in the cottontail rabbit caused by SfPV1. Infections by particular human PVs, such as HPV6 and HPV11, cause genital warts and are among the most common sexually transmitted infections.

Infectious agents can account for 20% of the global cancer burden. Several PVs are recognized by the World Health Organization as human carcinogens, as the link between cancer of the cervix and infection by so-called ‘high-risk’ human PVs (e.g. HPV16 or HPV18) is well established. World estimations in 2004 attribute more than 270,000 deaths to cervical cancer, 85% of them in developing countries (http://www.who.int/hpvcentre/en/). Globally, PVs account for more than 30% of all infection-associated cancers in humans, as they are also putatively involved in cancers of the penis, vagina, vulva, anus, perianal region and head and neck. The 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine awarded to Harald zur Hausen “for his discovery of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer” acknowledges the importance of this connection (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2008/). Two vaccines using capsid proteins as immunogens from the most clinically relevant human PVs that cause cervical cancer have been recently licensed and seem to offer at least mid-lasting protection (4–6 years). Certain PV-related malignancies could thus become preventable diseases, but projections for 2030 still foresee more than 470,000 deaths and almost 4 million years of life lost due to cervical cancer in the absence of a widespread application of human PV vaccines (http://www.who.int/healthinfo/global_burden_disease/projections/en/index.html).

From: The clinical importance of understanding the evolution of papillomaviruses. Ignacio G. Bravo, Silvia de Sanjosé and Marc Gottschling. Trends in Microbiology. Volume 18, Issue 10, October 2010, Pages 432-438.

NDM-1 Superbug

Recently, alarm has been raised over the spread of drug resistance to carbapenem antibiotics among coliforms (E.coli and Klebsiella), due to production of an enzyme named NDM-1 (or New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase).

Carbapenems are a class of beta-lactam antibiotics that have broad spectrum activity and are often reserved for emergency use and 'last resort' treatment. They have a structure that renders them highly resistant to beta-lactamases found in antibiotic resistant bacteria. Resistance to the carbapenems is found throughout India.