Bacteria Evolving to Target the Throat

There is a concerning finding by researchers at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS). Bacteria has been making a special change in it’s general shape, and ultimately it’s function. The pathogenic bacteria that live in the nasopharynx look as though they have changed shape over time. Changed from the shape of of sticks to balls or bacillus to coccus. Changing shape may actually help the bacteria move past the natural defenses of the throat and populate the desired area.

Respiratory infections are the number three top killers in the world. For this reason health officials that care for the public watch them carefully. Bacteria has had a long time to evolve to fight the immune defenses of the human body. These specific bacteria have an ecological specialty which includes populating the throat.

Surprisingly, the lack of a gene can actually help in the evolution of bacteria. The bacteria neisseria meningitidis and moraxella catharralis lack a gene called yacF. For this reason they are able to evolved and change their shape. This gives them the special ability to adapt as they need to continuously infect the nasal passages and respiratory tract of humans year after year.

Because the bacteria changed shape they now have the ability to transform the composition of specific molecules along their surface. This allows them to disguise themselves from the human immune system. The transformation of the molecules makes it difficult for the immune system to regularly detect the bacteria.

This finding actually challenges current thoughts that the shape of bacteria was fixed and couldn’t be changed. This is why this discovery is so important in the microbiological community. While not all bacteria can change their shape, the fact that two different species were found that carried this ability means that there are most certainly others.

Now that researchers understand a little more about the function and evolution of bacteria it is their hope to be able to use the new found information to create better treatments for severe bacterial illnesses in the future. Researchers are constantly looking for ways to prevent bacteria from constantly changing, making it more difficult for our natural immune defenses to protect the body.

New advances in medical research seem to be coming to light every day. There is an evolution in medicine that is accelerating. Learning how bacteria evolve is just one piece in the puzzle to eliminating disease and all of it’s effects.

New Compound Quickly Destroys Malaria

Malaria is one of the most common killing parasites across the world. There have been international efforts by some of the wealthiest countries and figures that have taken on the task of eliminating this disease, including people such as Bill Gates. Statistics show that a child dies in Africa every minute due to malaria. This statistic does not even include the other parts of the world and the death count that is mounted each year from this deadly parasite. That being said, there is a new anti-malaria compound that has been developed with a promising effect in eliminating the risk of Malaria and its deadly results. This new compound is called (+)-SJ733.
This new compound tells the immune system to quickly destroy all the red blood cells that have been infected by malaria. This same compound also tells the immune system to leave the healthy red blood cells unharmed. Because of the safety associated with this new compound it has already been approved for limited trials in healthy individuals.
(+)-SJ733 uses a mechanism to kill the parasite by using the immune system which has shown to eliminate up to 80% of the parasite in mice models within 24 hours. The compound was able to eliminate malaria to a level that was undetectable within 48 hours.
The compound actually eliminates the parasite by disrupting its sodium balance. As a result, the excess sodium buildup within the cell causes the parasite to die. The doctors are so confident in this new compound they are currently in the process of developing a therapy that is both cheap but should be able to cure malaria in a single dose.

Medical doctors with their ACLS certification, PALS certification, and BLS certification are no strangers to the deaths associated with malaria if they’ve worked in a malaria ridden country. Unfortunately malaria most often kills children so the majority of the doctors who treat these children would need PALS certification online to successfully resuscitate a dead child or infant in their last moments of life.
Even the most deadly forms of malaria have been shown to be eliminated by the compound which shows great promise for the fight against this deadly disease. As a result we should be able to save countless lives in the future and change the face of childhood deaths in several poverty stricken countries across the world.
Other research of this same compound also shows that it will slow and even suppress the evolution of drug-resistant strains of malaria. Moving the compound into life clinics with healthy adults is already about to begin. Thanks to a worldwide effort we can now see the progress in the fight against malaria