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Small molecule inhibitor of cholera discovered
October 17, 2005Just as hurricanes in the Gulf states and Guatemala have raised the risks of cholera outbreaks, researchers at Harvard Medical School have identified a new type of antibiotic against the cholera bacteria. While traditional antibiotics kill bacteria outright by interfering with processes essential for their survival, the new agent blocks production of bacterial proteins that cause the severe diarrhea associated with Vibrio cholerae infection.
"What we have done is made a custom, organism-specific antibiotic against Vibrio cholerae," said John Mekalanos, the Adele Lehman professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at HMS and the senior author on a report of the work appearing in today's online edition of Science.
Using a high-throughput screen of 50,000 small molecule candidate compounds, Mekalanos and lead author Deborah Hung identified several that turned off the expression of virulence proteins, factors that help the bacteria invade its human host and cause disease. They then showed that the most promising compound prevented cholera bacteria from setting up an infection when introduced into the digestive tract of mice.
Since most disease-causing organisms use elaborate virulence factors such as toxins to do their damage, the new approach should be widely applicable. "There is no reason our results cannot be replicated for a number of other important pathogens," Mekalanos said.
Harvard Medical School
Since most disease-causing organisms use elaborate virulence factors such as toxins to do their damage, the new approach should be widely applicable. "There is no reason our results cannot be replicated for a number of other important pathogens," Mekalanos said.
Harvard Medical School
Cholera Current Events and Cholera News RSSNew insight into predicting cholera epidemics in the Bengal Delta
Cholera, an acute diarrheal disease caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, has reemerged as a global killer. Outbreaks typically occur once a year in Africa and Latin America. But in Bangladesh the epidemics occur twice a year - in the spring and again in the fall.
Designing probiotics that ambush gut pathogens
Researchers in Australia are developing diversionary tactics to fool disease-causing bacteria in the gut.
Vi typhoid vaccine proves highly effective in young children
A new study has found that a currently available yet underused vaccine against typhoid fever is highly effective in young children and protects unvaccinated neighbors of vaccinees.
Simple measures may prevent transmission of stomach ulcer bacteria
The stomach ulcer bacterium Helicobacter pylori is not transmitted through drinking water as previously thought, but rather through vomit and possibly faeces.
Superbug risk to war wounded
Soldiers who survive severe injuries on battlefields such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan can be at risk from developing infections of their wounds with multidrug resistant bacteria.
Flies May Spread Drug-Resistant Bacteria from Poultry Operations
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found evidence that houseflies collected near broiler poultry operations may contribute to the dispersion of drug-resistant bacteria and thus increase the potential for human exposure to drug-resistant bacteria.
Bacterial pathogens and rising temperatures threaten coral health
Coral reefs around the world are in serious trouble from pollution, over-fishing, climate change and more. The last thing they need is an infection. But that's exactly what yellow band disease (YBD) is-a bacterial infection that sickens coral colonies.
Of Mice and Peanuts: A new mouse model for peanut allergy
Chicago researchers report the development of a new mouse model for food allergy that mimics symptoms generated during a human allergic reaction to peanuts.
From poison to prevention
One of the major challenges in modern vaccinology is to engineer vectors that are highly infectious, yet don't cause illness. Trickier still is to ensure that such weapons against infectious disease can be safely disarmed, once their immunogenic work is done.
Blocking the spread of antibiotic resistance in bacteria
It's as simple as A, T, G, C. Northwestern University scientists have exploited the Watson-Crick base pairing of DNA to provide a defensive tool that could be used to fight the spread of antibiotic resistance in bacteria -- one of the world's most pressing public health problems.
More Cholera Current Events and Cholera News Articles
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Love in the Time of Cholera (Vintage International) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Author) In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is devastated, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs--yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again. |
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The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866 by Charles E. Rosenberg (Author) Cholera was the classic epidemic disease of the nineteenth century, as the plague had been for the fourteenth. Its defeat was a reflection not only of progress in medical knowledge but of enduring changes in American social thought. Rosenberg has focused his study on New York City, the most highly developed center of this new society. Carefully documented, full of descriptive detail, yet written with an urgent sense of the drama of the epidemic years, this narrative is as absorbing for general audiences as it is for the medical historian. In a new Afterword, Rosenberg discusses changes in historical method and concerns since the original publication of The Cholera Years. "A major work of interpretation of medical and social thought . . . this volume is also to be commended for its... |
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Love in the Time of Cholera by Original Soundtrack Nobel Prize winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez' novel comes to the big screen, starring Javier Bardem, Benjamin Bratt, and John Leguizamo. The film follows a love triangle set in turn of the century South America, where two lovers wait out careers, marriages, affairs, and deaths until they can reunite. The soundtrack showcases lush Columbian music with an authentically beautiful score by Antonio Pinto ("City Of God") and two new tracks, sung in Spanish, by Shakira. These songs were written exclusively for the film and are exclusive to this soundtrack. |
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Love in the Time of Cholera Starring: Javier Bardem, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Benjamin Bratt, Gina Bernard Forbes, Marcela Mar Directed By: Mike Newell Also With: Andrew Molasky (Producer), Brantley M. Dunaway (Producer), Chris Law (Producer), Danny Greenspun (Producer), Dylan Russell (Producer), Gabriel García Márquez (Writer), Ronald Harwood (Writer) Based on the bestselling novel by Nobel Prize winning author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, comes an epic love story that spans a lifetime, set against the breathtaking backdrop of South America during the turn of the century. When a teenage Florentino Ariza sees Fermina Daza for the first time, a spark of youthful infatuation ignites a romance that will carry the two from intoxicating highs to desperate lows over the next 50 years, in the film that dares to ask; How long would you wait for love? |
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The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump: John Snow and the Mystery of Cholera by Sandra Hempel (Author) In 1831, an unknown, horrifying, and deadly disease from Asia swept across continental Europe and North America, killing millions and throwing the medical profession into confusion. A killer with little respect for class or wealth, cholera ravaged the squalid streets of Soho and rocked the great centers of Victorian power. In this gripping book, Sandra Hempel tells the story of John Snow, a reclusive doctor without money or social position, who--alone and unrecognized--had the genius to look beyond the conventional wisdom of his day and uncover the truth behind the pandemic. She describes how Snow discovered that cholera was spread through drinking water and how this subsequently laid the foundations for the modern, scientific investigation of today's fatal plagues. A dramatic account... |
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The Answer to Infection Cholera (Primary Contributor) |
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The Medical Detective: John Snow, Cholera and the Mystery of the Broad Street Pump by Sandra Hempel (Author) In 1831, an unknown, horrifying and deadly disease from Asia swept across Continental Europe, killing millions in its path and throwing the medical profession into confusion. Cholera is a killer with little respect for class or wealth. When it arrived in Britain, its repercussions rocked Victorian England - from the filthy lanes of the Sunderland quayside and the squalid streets of Soho, to the great centres of power: the Privy Council, Whitehall and, the Royal Medical Colleges. One man - alone and unrecognised - uncovered the truth behind the pandemic and laid the foundations for the modern, scientific investigation of today's fatal plagues. John Snow was a reclusive doctor, without money or social position, who had the genius to look beyond the conventional wisdom of his day, and work... |
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Letters on the Cholera Morbus. Part I first published in 1831, and Part II in 1832. |
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The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson (Author) A thrilling historical account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London-and a brilliant exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease, cities, science, and the modern world. From the dynamic thinker routinely compared to Malcolm Gladwell, E. O. Wilson, and James Gleick, The Ghost Map is a riveting page-turner with a real-life historical hero that brilliantly illuminates the intertwined histories of the spread of viruses, rise of cities, and the nature of scientific inquiry. These are topics that have long obsessed Steven Johnson, and The Ghost Map is a true triumph of the kind of multidisciplinary thinking for which he's become famous-a book that, like the work of Jared Diamond, presents both vivid history and a powerful and... |
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The Answer to Infection by Cholera |
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