Streptococcus pneumoniae, or Pneumococcus, is a very common bacterial infection in both industrialized and developing countries. In particular, young children and the elderly represent high-risk populations of developing pneumococcal infections. According to the WHO, the bacterium kills up to one million children under the age of five years each year worldwide. It accounts for many Bacterial Meningitis cases in adults and it is the most common cause of Bacteraemia, Pneumonia, Meningitis and Otitis media in young children.
Scientists at the University of Sheffield have uncovered an evolutionary gateway that enables pneumonia cells to develop resistance to antibiotics.
A population of unconventional white blood cells has recently captured the attention of immunologists and clinicians alike.
Increases in multidrug-resistance in the bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae have made it the fourth-leading cause of death associated with antibiotic resistance.
Pneumococcal disease leads to over three million hospitalizations and hundreds of thousands of deaths annually.
Scientists from the National Institutes of Health recently found a therapy that targets host cells instead of bacterial cells in treating bacterial pneumonia.
Similar to how a spider traps its prey, the cells of the human immune system cooperate to trap and “eat” bacteria.
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine published one of the most comprehensive analyses of how genes get expressed during infection (known as a transcriptome).
New insight on how bacteria in the lungs protect against invading pathogens has been published today in the open-access eLife journal.
Jacqueline Kimmey speaks to AZoLifeSciences about her research into bacterial pneumonia and the genes that drive its spread from the lungs into the blood.