Staphylococcus aureus News and Research

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Staphylococcus aureus is a spherical bacterium (coccus) which on microscopic examination appears in pairs, short chains, or bunched, grape-like clusters. These organisms are Gram-positive. Some strains are capable of producing a highly heat-stable protein toxin that causes illness in humans.

Staph-killing compound may be effective against osteomyelitis

Osteomyelitis - a debilitating bone infection most frequently caused by Staphylococcus aureus ("staph") bacteria - is particularly challenging to treat.

20 Jun 2013

Scientists discover new mechanism to protect body from harmful bacteria

Scientists at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Medicine have discovered a mechanism that is used to protect the body from harmful bacteria. Platelets, a component of blood typically associated with clotting, were discovered to actively search for specific bacteria, and upon detection, seal it off from the rest of the body. The findings, which were published in Nature Immunology this week, provide the science community with a greater understanding of immunity.

19 Jun 2013

Antibiotic with clinical potential can stimulate own production, say scientists

An antibiotic has been found to stimulate its own production. The findings, to be published in PNAS, could make it easier to scale up antibiotic production for commercialisation.

18 Jun 2013

Researchers create guidelines to reduce staph infections after surgery

Staph infections in hospitals are a serious concern, so much so that the term Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is as commonly known as MRI. Far less known is that in many of these cases, patients are infecting themselves.

13 Jun 2013

New plug-in optical sensor can help diagnose Kaposi's sarcoma

As antiretroviral drugs that treat HIV have become more commonplace, the incidence of Kaposi's sarcoma, a type of cancer linked to AIDS, has decreased in the United States.

5 Jun 2013

Duke Medicine, UCSF investigators to oversee research program on antibacterial resistance

Investigators at Duke Medicine and the University of California, San Francisco have been selected to oversee a nationwide research program on antibacterial resistance, which includes a focus on the growing unmet challenges associated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli.

4 Jun 2013

Using germ-killing soap, ointment reduces presence of MRSA in ICUs, study finds

Using germ-killing soap and ointment on all intensive-care unit patients can reduce bloodstream infections by up to 44 percent and significantly reduce the presence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in ICUs, according study results published in today's New England Journal of Medicine.

31 May 2013

Wisconsin scientists synthesize potent compounds to curb bacteria that cause staph infections

In an age when microbial pathogens are growing increasingly resistant to the conventional antibiotics used to tamp down infection, a team of Wisconsin scientists has synthesized a potent new class of compounds capable of curbing the bacteria that cause staph infections.

24 May 2013

University of Granada researchers patent new treatment for acne

University of Granada scientists have patented a new treatment for acne that is based on completely natural substances and is much more effective than artificial formulas because it does not create resistance to bacteria and has no secondary effects.

23 May 2013

JPIDS releases consensus statement of Sentinel Project on Pediatric Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

The Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society today released its June issue, which includes a consensus statement of the global Sentinel Project on Pediatric Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis.

22 May 2013

Certain varieties of clay have ability to kill MRSA, says ASU researcher

In the race to protect society from infectious microbes, the bugs are outrunning us. The need for new therapeutic agents is acute, given the emergence of novel pathogens as well as old foes bearing heightened antibiotic resistance.

20 May 2013

Sorrento Therapeutics' anti-MRSA program gets NIAID support

Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that its Fast-Track Advanced Technology Small Business Technology Transfer Research grant (#1R42AI098182-02) from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health, supporting the development of novel human antibody therapeutics to combat Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus or Staph) infections, including methicillin-resistant S. aureus, was renewed for the second year of a two year Phase I grant award.

18 May 2013

Thioridazine works by weakening staphylococcal cell wall, new study reveals

In 2008 researchers from the University of Southern Denmark showed that the drug thioridazine, which has previously been used to treat schizophrenia, is also a powerful weapon against antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as staphylococci (Staphylococcus aureus).

18 May 2013

Discovery provides vital clues for new antibiotics against MRSA

Scientists at Imperial College London have identified four new proteins that act as receptors for an essential signalling molecule in bacteria such as MRSA.

14 May 2013

Scientists use phages to prevent bacteria on medical devices

They're ba-ack! But in a new disease-fighting role. Viruses that infect and kill bacteria - used to treat infections in the pre-antibiotic era a century ago and in the former Soviet Union today - may have a new role in preventing formation of the sticky "biofilms" of bacteria responsible for infections on implanted medical devices.

9 May 2013

Cubist receives Fast Track designation from FDA for late-stage antibiotic candidate

Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted the Company's late-stage antibiotic candidate ceftolozane/tazobactam (CXA-201) Fast Track status in the previously granted Qualified Infectious Disease Product indications, Hospital-Acquired Bacterial Pneumonia/Ventilator-Associated Bacterial Pneumonia and Complicated Urinary Tract Infections.

8 May 2013