Wow, it's July. My apologies, I've been away for a while. This blogger has been busy looking for a new job, an activity that turns out to be a bit of a time suck. I'm currently bouncing back from a very nice vacation last week, visiting family and friends on the west coast and in the south. (Yes, the avocados and biscuits were all delicious!)
I have some interesting articles from the primary literature picked out and will prepare posts for them in the near future. For today, I've pulled together a few quick reads from the popular press regarding some topics of interest. Not surprisingly, mainstream media sources give a lot of attention to microbes that cause disease. For my next post, we'll return to our focus on the gut microbiota by highlighting recent research on a bug that may help fight obesity (cool, right?), so please check back soon!
Here are the links to the articles and a quick digest of what you can find therein:
(New York Times, 6/7/2013 letter to the editor, Jeffrey Stein)
In a response to the NY Times article that I highlighted in my previous post, Jeffrey Stein, the president and chief executive of Trius Therapeutics, a San Diego based biopharmaceutical company, argues that there is a lack of market incentive for new antibiotic production.
(New York Times, 7/1/2013, Donald G. McNeil Jr.)
We have focused on the challenges posed by drug resistant tuberculosis in a previous post. In this brief highlight from the NY Times, a recent PLoS Medicine report is described. The researchers show that in poorer nations, TB drugs are often "substandard", contributing to the rise of drug resistant tuberculosis strains. The remedy may be simple; enforce existing World Health Organization standards.
(NPR, 7/2/2013, Jason Beaubien)
Not to belabor the TB theme, but here is another interesting - and unfortunately sad - story out of Tajikistan, an example of a "poorer nation" discussed in the snippet directly above. It turns out that in addition to having only limited access to quality drugs to treat tuberculosis, there are broad societal misconceptions about how the pathogen is spread. To add insult to injury, contracting TB is considered shameful, causing patients to lie about or hide their illness.
(LA Times, 6/26/2013, Eryn Brown)
This LA Times Science Now highlight reports on a study by S. Yoshimoto et. al. in the recent issue of Nature, where it is shown that obesity triggers changes in the gut microbiota that leads to the release of deoxycholic acid, a bacterial metabolite that causes DNA damage. The researchers believe that this points to a link between obesity and an increased risk of developing liver cancer (via a small molecule signaling mechanism).
(Chicago Tribune, 7/3/2013 , Kathryn Doyle; Reuters)
A new study shows that exposure to antibiotics during the first year of life increases the risk of the allergic skin disease eczema. The researchers suggest that this reveals a link between the resident microbes in babies, the developing immune system, and autoimmune diseases. Alternately, there was no link found between prenatal antibiotic exposure and increased eczema risk.
(ScienceDaily, 6/27/2013)
This is a fascinating one! So, it should surprise no one that plastics, completely man-made chemicals, are pollutants in our waterways and marine ecosystems. Tiny particles of plastic are now creating a unique environment in the Earth's oceans, referred to as the "plastisphere". Yes, this is a bit sad and troubling, for sure. But, this ScienceDaily post reports on a recent article in the journal Environmental Science & Toxicology by E. Zettler et. al., where the authors have found completely unique populations of microbes living in and adapting to the "plastisphere" environment. Electron microscopy analysis of some of the plastic particles revealed pits and imperfections on the plastic surface, indicating microbial processing of the polymer. The authors certainly did not fail to point out that it would be cool to tap the plastisphere to discover hydrocarbon and plastic degrading microbes that could be used to clean up polluted environments! (Lemons into lemonade I suppose?)
Happy reading and Happy 4th of July!
- @EJDimise
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