- Email: [email protected]
Sniffing out infection
News & Comment
TRENDS in Microbiology Vol.9 No.2 February 2001
59
In Brief
Sexually transmitted trends Data gathered from a number of centres and countries across Europe show worrying trends for sexually transmitted infections. According to Dr Angus Nicoll, Director of the PHLS Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, trends in reports of sexually transmitted diseases are consistent with the worsening of sexual health in many parts of Europe. For example, in England, rates of gonorrhoea rose by 30% between 1998 and 1999 among heterosexual men and women, with a 40% increase among teenagers. Significant rises were also seen for gonorrhoea among homosexual males of most age groups, and among this group there were also particularly worrying outbreaks of syphilis. CK
Sniffing out infection An ‘electronic nose’ that was developed by British and US scientists to detect bacteria in urine samples is to be tested on patients. The device offers diagnosis of possible infections within minutes rather than days. It was developed by Crewe-based Osmetech, and the US company Cyrano Sciences of Pasadena, California, which makes similar instruments for industry. CK http://www.aromascan.com/
Biological tools and weapons Biodegradation is often studied with bioremediation in mind. Some US military advisors also see applications for the microbial degradation of hydrocarbons in the development of non-lethal biological weapons. As reported in New Scientist (http://www.newscientist.com), the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate of the US Marine Corps wants to renegotiate the treaties on chemical and biological warfare. This would allow them to create new nonlethal weapons that could be used in difficult peacekeeping missions. By exploiting the metabolic peculiarities of certain bacteria, the US marines hope to develop bio-weapons that could, for example, degrade oil, plastic engine fittings or rubber tyres. Environmental microbiologists might wonder about the effectiveness of such weapons, given that the biodegradation of plastics and other hydrocarbons tends to be tediously slow. AV
Greater infection risk in France
The risk of BSE infection is much greater in French beef than in the British variety, according to Christl Donnelly of Imperial College London (reported in Nature 408, pp. 787–788). She estimates that 52 cattle capable of passing the disease to humans will have been eaten in France during 2000. In Britain, she thinks the figure is between 1 and 2. There have been 1200 reported cases of BSE-infected cattle in France since mid-1987 but Donelly thinks the true figure is much higher as a result of under reporting. CK http://www.nature.co.uk
A flagellar first Researchers from Emory University in Atlanta have speculated that flagellin secreted by Salmonella typhimurium is translocated across entire cell layers in the gut. In tissue culture studies, S. typhimurium flagellin moved across polarized gut epithelia and induced the secretion of interleukin-8. Biochemist Andrew Gewirtz, who reported these results at the 2000 meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology, says the research team was surprised to find that a bacterial protein, rather than a host component, was responsible for inducing the inflammatory response. Secreted flagellar proteins from nonpathogenic strains abound in the gut, but fail to elicit an inflammatory response. In the tissue culture model, flagellin from Escherichia coli did not translocate across cell layers, suggesting that E. coli flagellin also does not make it across the epithelium in the gut, and therefore cannot stimulate an inflammatory response. AV http://www.bmn.com/ http://www.ascb.org/
Rainy season sparks malaria outbreak A malaria epidemic that has already affected an estimated 276 000 people in the northern highland districts of Burundi could affect hundreds of thousands more with the imminent rainy season. Roll Back Malaria, a global partnership seeking to halve the malaria burden by 2010, has organized urgent shipments of drugs to the central African country to treat those affected by the epidemic, which is thought to have been sparked by October rains. Experts fear that the four-month rainy season, which started in January, could herald a massive increase in malaria. In previous years, cases have doubled during this time. The circumstances are similar to the world’s last major malaria epidemic, which hit the western highlands of Kenya in the first part of 1999, affecting >1 million people. CK
AIDS in China China is on a ‘fast track’ to an AIDS epidemic and will have 10 million or more HIV/AIDS patients by 2010 unless its acts decisively and soon, according to Edwin Judd, UNICEF representative in China. The number of officially reported cases is growing at >30% per year and hit 20 711 in September 2000. Some 70% of these cases are intravenous drug users and the majority are men, aged 20–29. However, experts reckon there are up to 600 000 cases of HIV/AIDS unreported in the world’s most populous nation because sufferers carry the virus unknowingly or, fearing ostracism, are afraid to report it. CK http://www.unicef.org.uk
Tough times early on Life on earth might have started much earlier than previously believed. Research supported by the National Science Foundation and the NASA Astrobiology Institute indicates that conditions on earth during the ‘late heavy bombardment’ were probably more hospitable to life than scientists had thought. Although the earth was frequently hit by asteroids and comets during this early period of its history, the bombardment was probably mild enough for microorganisms to survive. Researchers working on the project say that bacteria and viruses could
http://tim.trends.com 0966-842X/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
TRENDS in Microbiology Vol.9 No.2 February 2001
59
In Brief
Sexually transmitted trends Data gathered from a number of centres and countries across Europe show worrying trends for sexually transmitted infections. According to Dr Angus Nicoll, Director of the PHLS Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, trends in reports of sexually transmitted diseases are consistent with the worsening of sexual health in many parts of Europe. For example, in England, rates of gonorrhoea rose by 30% between 1998 and 1999 among heterosexual men and women, with a 40% increase among teenagers. Significant rises were also seen for gonorrhoea among homosexual males of most age groups, and among this group there were also particularly worrying outbreaks of syphilis. CK
Sniffing out infection An ‘electronic nose’ that was developed by British and US scientists to detect bacteria in urine samples is to be tested on patients. The device offers diagnosis of possible infections within minutes rather than days. It was developed by Crewe-based Osmetech, and the US company Cyrano Sciences of Pasadena, California, which makes similar instruments for industry. CK http://www.aromascan.com/
Biological tools and weapons Biodegradation is often studied with bioremediation in mind. Some US military advisors also see applications for the microbial degradation of hydrocarbons in the development of non-lethal biological weapons. As reported in New Scientist (http://www.newscientist.com), the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate of the US Marine Corps wants to renegotiate the treaties on chemical and biological warfare. This would allow them to create new nonlethal weapons that could be used in difficult peacekeeping missions. By exploiting the metabolic peculiarities of certain bacteria, the US marines hope to develop bio-weapons that could, for example, degrade oil, plastic engine fittings or rubber tyres. Environmental microbiologists might wonder about the effectiveness of such weapons, given that the biodegradation of plastics and other hydrocarbons tends to be tediously slow. AV
Greater infection risk in France
The risk of BSE infection is much greater in French beef than in the British variety, according to Christl Donnelly of Imperial College London (reported in Nature 408, pp. 787–788). She estimates that 52 cattle capable of passing the disease to humans will have been eaten in France during 2000. In Britain, she thinks the figure is between 1 and 2. There have been 1200 reported cases of BSE-infected cattle in France since mid-1987 but Donelly thinks the true figure is much higher as a result of under reporting. CK http://www.nature.co.uk
A flagellar first Researchers from Emory University in Atlanta have speculated that flagellin secreted by Salmonella typhimurium is translocated across entire cell layers in the gut. In tissue culture studies, S. typhimurium flagellin moved across polarized gut epithelia and induced the secretion of interleukin-8. Biochemist Andrew Gewirtz, who reported these results at the 2000 meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology, says the research team was surprised to find that a bacterial protein, rather than a host component, was responsible for inducing the inflammatory response. Secreted flagellar proteins from nonpathogenic strains abound in the gut, but fail to elicit an inflammatory response. In the tissue culture model, flagellin from Escherichia coli did not translocate across cell layers, suggesting that E. coli flagellin also does not make it across the epithelium in the gut, and therefore cannot stimulate an inflammatory response. AV http://www.bmn.com/ http://www.ascb.org/
Rainy season sparks malaria outbreak A malaria epidemic that has already affected an estimated 276 000 people in the northern highland districts of Burundi could affect hundreds of thousands more with the imminent rainy season. Roll Back Malaria, a global partnership seeking to halve the malaria burden by 2010, has organized urgent shipments of drugs to the central African country to treat those affected by the epidemic, which is thought to have been sparked by October rains. Experts fear that the four-month rainy season, which started in January, could herald a massive increase in malaria. In previous years, cases have doubled during this time. The circumstances are similar to the world’s last major malaria epidemic, which hit the western highlands of Kenya in the first part of 1999, affecting >1 million people. CK
AIDS in China China is on a ‘fast track’ to an AIDS epidemic and will have 10 million or more HIV/AIDS patients by 2010 unless its acts decisively and soon, according to Edwin Judd, UNICEF representative in China. The number of officially reported cases is growing at >30% per year and hit 20 711 in September 2000. Some 70% of these cases are intravenous drug users and the majority are men, aged 20–29. However, experts reckon there are up to 600 000 cases of HIV/AIDS unreported in the world’s most populous nation because sufferers carry the virus unknowingly or, fearing ostracism, are afraid to report it. CK http://www.unicef.org.uk
Tough times early on Life on earth might have started much earlier than previously believed. Research supported by the National Science Foundation and the NASA Astrobiology Institute indicates that conditions on earth during the ‘late heavy bombardment’ were probably more hospitable to life than scientists had thought. Although the earth was frequently hit by asteroids and comets during this early period of its history, the bombardment was probably mild enough for microorganisms to survive. Researchers working on the project say that bacteria and viruses could
http://tim.trends.com 0966-842X/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.