scholarly journals Ω76: A designed antimicrobial peptide to combat carbapenem- and tigecycline-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. eaax1946 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepesh Nagarajan ◽  
Natasha Roy ◽  
Omkar Kulkarni ◽  
Neha Nanajkar ◽  
Akshay Datey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Acinetobacter Baumannii ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Helical Structure ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Membrane Disruption ◽  
Public Health Concern ◽  
Medical Progress ◽  
Sublethal Doses ◽  
Eskape Pathogens ◽  
Additive Toxicity

Drug resistance is a public health concern that threatens to undermine decades of medical progress. ESKAPE pathogens cause most nosocomial infections, and are frequently resistant to carbapenem antibiotics, usually leaving tigecycline and colistin as the last treatment options. However, increasing tigecycline resistance and colistin’s nephrotoxicity severely restrict use of these antibiotics. We have designed antimicrobial peptides using a maximum common subgraph approach. Our best peptide (Ω76) displayed high efficacy against carbapenem and tigecycline-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in mice. Mice treated with repeated sublethal doses of Ω76 displayed no signs of chronic toxicity. Sublethal Ω76 doses co-administered alongside sublethal colistin doses displayed no additive toxicity. These results indicate that Ω76 can potentially supplement or replace colistin, especially where nephrotoxicity is a concern. To our knowledge, no other existing antibiotics occupy this clinical niche. Mechanistically, Ω76 adopts an α-helical structure in membranes, causing rapid membrane disruption, leakage, and bacterial death.

An Overview of Dementias

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 75-84
Author(s):  
Venkata Vijaya K. Dalai ◽  
Jason E. Childress ◽  
Paul E Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Presentation ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Current Treatment ◽  
Great Variability ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Public Health Concern ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
The Common ◽  
Neurodegenerative Dementias ◽  
Made In

Dementia is a major public health concern that afflicts an estimated 24.3 million people worldwide. Great strides are being made in order to better diagnose, prevent, and treat these disorders. Dementia is associated with multiple complications, some of which can be life-threatening, such as dysphagia. There is great variability between dementias in terms of when dysphagia and other swallowing disorders occur. In order to prepare the reader for the other articles in this publication discussing swallowing issues in depth, the authors of this article will provide a brief overview of the prevalence, risk factors, pathogenesis, clinical presentation, diagnosis, current treatment options, and implications for eating for the common forms of neurodegenerative dementias.

A Scoping Review on Category A Agents as Bioweapons

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Sarah L. Beale ◽  
Tara Rava Zolnikov ◽  
Casey Mace Firebaugh
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Research And Development ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Biological Agents ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Public Health Concern ◽  
Preparedness Plan ◽  
The Public ◽  
Current Information

Abstract Category A agents are biological pathogens that could pose a threat to health and human safety if used as bioweapons. The exploration and possibility of these threats must be comprehensively reviewed to create a preparedness plan to recognize outbreaks, to educate the public, and to offer vaccinations and/or treatment options, if available. A scoping review using PRISMA guidelines was performed to categorize current information on Category A biological agents as well as understand their potential for future threats. The results used 34 articles and found that while botulin neurotoxins were the most lethal, anthrax posed the most likely threat for use as a bioweapon. Most research was conducted on plague, though it is not the most likely threat. Smallpox is the most likely agent to vaccinate against as there is already a working vaccine that has proven effective and the issue at hand is the need for a larger stockpile. Ultimately, preparedness efforts should include vaccinations and continued research and development of them. Category A agents are a serious public health concern; updated and reformed bioterrorism preparedness plans could greatly minimize panic and mortality.

scholarly journals Minireview on Novel Anti-infectious Treatment Options and Optimized Drug Regimens for Sepsis

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maya Hites
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Public Health Concern ◽  
Standard Dosage ◽  
Dosage Regimens ◽  
Drug Concentrations ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
Drug Regimens ◽  
Do So

Sepsis, a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated response to infection is a major public health concern, as it is a leading cause of mortality and critical illness worldwide. Antibiotics are one of the cornerstones of the treatment of sepsis; administering appropriate antibiotics in a rapid fashion to obtain adequate drug concentrations at the site of the infection can improve survival of patients. Nevertheless, it is a challenge for clinicians to do so. Indeed, clinicians today are regularly confronted with infections due to very resistant pathogens, and standard dosage regimens of antibiotics often do not provide adequate antibiotic concentrations at the site of the infection. We provide a narrative minireview of different anti-infectious treatments currently available and suggestions on how to deliver optimized dosage regimens to septic patients. Particular emphasis will be made on newly available anti-infectious therapies.

scholarly journals In Vitro Efficacy of Gentamicin Alone and in Combination with Ceftriaxone, Ertapenem, and Azithromycin against Multidrug-Resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuechun Li ◽  
Wenjing Le ◽  
Xiangdi Lou ◽  
Biwei Wang ◽  
Caroline A. Genco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Neisseria Gonorrhoeae ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Multidrug Resistant ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Public Health Concern ◽  
Content Type ◽  
New Treatment

Antimicrobial-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a major global public health concern. New treatment options are urgently needed to successfully treat multidrug-resistant (MDR) Neisseria gonorrhoeae infections.

scholarly journals Molecular Characterization of Extended-Spectrum-Cephalosporin-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae from Wild Kelp Gulls in South America

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (11) ◽  
pp. 6924-6927 ◽  
Author(s):  
Apostolos Liakopoulos ◽  
Björn Olsen ◽  
Yvon Geurts ◽  
Karin Artursson ◽  
Charlotte Berg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Wild Birds ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Molecular Characteristics ◽  
Public Health Concern ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Extended Spectrum ◽  
First Time

ABSTRACTExtended-spectrum-cephalosporin-resistantEnterobacteriaceaeare a public health concern due to limited treatment options. Here, we report on the occurrence and the molecular characteristics of extended-spectrum-cephalosporin-resistantEnterobacteriaceaerecovered from wild birds (kelp gulls). Our results revealed kelp gulls as a reservoir of various extended-spectrum cephalosporinase genes associated with different genetic platforms. In addition, we report for the first time the presence of a known epidemic clone ofSalmonella entericaserotype Heidelberg (JF6X01.0326/XbaI.1966) among wild birds.

Treatments for Methamphetamine Abuse

2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 541-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd Brackins ◽  
Nancy C. Brahm ◽  
Julie C. Kissack
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Options ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Treatment Programs ◽  
Societal Impact ◽  
Pharmacological Treatments ◽  
Public Health Concern ◽  
Preclinical Research ◽  
Amphetamine Abuse ◽  
Abuse Treatment

Methamphetamine (METH) use and dependence is a serious public health concern with implications across multiple areas from societal impact to burden on psychiatric and medical resources. An estimated 8% of admissions to substance abuse treatment programs are related to stimulants with METH/amphetamine abuse. To date, effective pharmacotherapy options to enhance abstinence have not been identified. The objective of this article is to critically review the literature of METH treatment options. Preclinical research and human research with compounds not yet available commercially in the United States will not be included. A literature review was conducted for research on pharmacological treatments for METH use and addiction. Trial information on the use of sertraline, bupropion, mirtazapine, modafinil, dextroamphetamine, ondansetron, risperidone, aripiprazole, baclofen, and gabapentin was reviewed. Aripiprazole trials appeared in the reviewed literature more frequently than the other medications. Based on the findings of this review, no single medication demonstrated consistent efficacy and each trial contained a variety of methodological limitations.

Reframing Fatness: Critiquing ‘Obesity’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethan Evans ◽  
Charlotte Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Weight Loss ◽  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Public Health Concern ◽  
Policy Language ◽  
Religious Imagery ◽  
Fat Bodies

Over the last twenty years or so, fatness, pathologised as overweight and obesity, has been a core public health concern around which has grown a lucrative international weight loss industry. Referred to as a ‘time bomb’ and ‘the terror within’, analogies of ‘war’ circulate around obesity, framing fatness as enemy.2 Religious imagery and cultural and moral ideologies inform medical, popular and policy language with the ‘sins’ of ‘gluttony’ and ‘sloth’, evoked to frame fat people as immoral at worst and unknowledgeable victims at best, and understandings of fatness intersect with gender, class, age, sexuality, disability and race to make some fat bodies more problematically fat than others. As Evans and Colls argue, drawing on Michel Foucault, a combination of medical and moral knowledges produces the powerful ‘obesity truths’ through which fatness is framed as universally abject and pathological. Dominant and medicalised discourses of fatness (as obesity) leave little room for alternative understandings.

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