As the discovery of new antibiotics lags, we are faced with a growing number of bacteria that have become resistant to commonly used antibiotics. Researchers from Albany Medical College and the Ordway Research Institute in Albany, New York, analyzed the response of defined bacterial populations to increasing drug exposure and devised a mathematical model that predicts the response of drug-sensitive and -resistant bacteria and ultimately identifies the drug concentration necessary to suppress a resistant mutant population. Directly applicable to a clinical setting, the model would allow easy determination of the antibiotic dose required to treat infection and also suppress the development of antibiotic-resistant organisms.
TITLE: Application of a mathematical model to prevent in vivo amplification of antibiotic-resistant bacterial populations during therapy
AUTHOR CONTACT:
George L. Drusano
Ordway Research Institute, Albany, New York.
Phone: 518-262-6330
Fax: 518-262-6333
E-mail: gldrusano@aol.com
View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/press/16814.pdf
Fighting fibrosis in liver disease
Liver injury and fibrosis are cardinal features of most chronic human liver diseases and they result from inflammation and the self-programmed death (apoptosis) of hepatocyte cells in the liver. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota report that it is the lysosomal pathway that primarily dominates hepatocyte apoptosis. They also demonstrate a direct link between hepatocyte apoptosis and fibrosis. The data suggests that inhibition of apoptosis and perhaps the lysosomal pathway of apoptosis are important in the prevention of fibrosis and a number of other liver diseases.
TITLE: Cathepsin B inactivation attenuates hepatic injury and fibrosis during choles
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Contact: Brooke Grindlinger
science_editor@the-jci.org
212-342-9006
Journal of Clinical Investigation
15-Jul-2003