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After two confirmed U.S. cases of a superbug that thwarts a last-resort antibiotic, infectious disease experts say they expect more cases in coming months because the bacterial gene (mcr-1) behind it is likely far more widespread than previously believed...Army scientists...reported finding E. coli bacteria that harbor a gene which renders the antibiotic colistin useless...The mcr-1 superbug has been identified over the past six months in farm animals and people in about 20 countries...Health officials fear the mcr-1 gene, carried by a highly mobile piece of DNA called a plasmid, will soon be found in bacteria already resistant to all or virtually all other types of antibiotics, potentially making infections untreatable...Within the next two to three years, it's going to be fairly routine for infections to occur in the United States for which we have no (effective) drugs available...mcr-1 will find its way into carbapenem-resistant bacteria…the resulting virtually impervious bacterium would likely spread slowly inside the United States because CRE themselves are not yet widespread in the country, giving drugmakers some time to create new antibiotics...

In New Orleans...a major medical organization attempted a feat perhaps as hard as treating the disease doctors were there to discuss. They asked a packed convention hall of attendees not to tweet the confidential, market-moving data they had flown in to see...It didn't work...In an unusual arrangement, the American Diabetes Association let hundreds, if not thousands, of in-person attendees see new data on Novo Nordisk A/S・s blockbuster diabetes treatment Victoza (liraglutide) more than an hour before its official release to the public and the markets. That's atypical for such sensitive data, which are usually shared only with journalists and researchers who have agreed to abide by strict terms, under threat of losing future access...After warning attendees not to share the information they were about to post...Within minutes, some Twitter accounts were posting pictures of the charts, including key slides that showed the drug's success in reducing deaths. And as fast as the posts went up, the medical society's communications team issued online pleas for them to stop...Novo's shares fell 5.6 percent to 343 kroner, for their biggest one-day drop since February...You can't embargo something that is being discussed publicly...Why are they trying to control the flow of information, especially in this case where the results could influence public health and the markets? Hopefully other organizations won't take this as a signal they can do the same thing...

This month, the UK government's review of antimicrobial resistance sent alarm bells ringing in Whitehall and issued a call for new medicines to kill antibiotic-resistant superbugs...When economist and government minister Jim O'Neill published the final version of his long-awaited report...its message was clear – antimicrobial resistance is perhaps the single biggest threat in modern medicine...O'Neill stresses the need for new antibiotics...A truly new class of antibiotic has not been seen for decades because the lack of incentives for investment has led to reduced R&D...Many of the 'low hanging fruit' in terms of development have already been picked... Antibiotics are given for just a short course of treatment and so sales are very limited. If a new antibiotic is reserved only for use in treating resistant infections, then most of the time it will sit on the pharmacy shelf not being used. Again this disincentivises any commercial company to develop new antibiotics...With a renewed focus on AMR, big pharma has started to take interest...

There’s an unfortunate irony for people who rely on morphine, oxycodone, and other opioid painkillers: The drug that’s supposed to offer you relief can actually make you more sensitive to pain over time. That effect, known as hyperalgesia, could render these medications gradually less effective for chronic pain, leading people to rely on higher and higher doses. A new study...the first to look at the interaction between opioids and nerve injury for months after the pain-killing treatment was stopped—paints an especially grim picture. An opioid sets off a chain of immune signals in the spinal cord that amplifies pain rather than dulling it, even after the drug leaves the body...Yet drugs already under development might be able to reverse the effect...spinal cord...microglia—sentinels of the nervous system that scout for infection...release inflammatory signaling molecules into the spinal cord, which activate neurons that shoot pain signals up to the brain...Researchers are...exploring drugs that interrupt this pathway to treat pain or improve the performance of opioids. A clinical trial recently launched at Yale University, for example, will test whether an antibiotic that inhibits glial cells prevents the inflammatory effects of opioids.

Researchers at ITMO University in St. Petersburg, Russia, have developed a magnetically controlled treatment designed to dissolve blood clots. The method looks to be a promising solution to some of the complications associated with enzyme-based thrombolytic drugs...To make the targeted drug, the scientists combined the mineral magnetite with the enzyme urokinase, commonly used as a thrombolytic agent. The nanosized particles can then be localized around a blood clot using an external magnetic field...The combination demonstrated up to 4,000 times more efficiency than the enzyme-based drugs alone...Now we are using a sledgehammer to crack a nut… In order to change the situation, we decided to develop a method of targeted drug delivery that would allow us to considerably reduce the dosage and ensure that the whole therapeutic effect is focused on the clot...

One of the most successful research enterprises funded by the NIH, the Clinical Research Center program, is dying, its highly productive life cut short...In 1910, Rockefeller University in New York built basic research labs around a suite of 20 or so hospital beds...this...translational research...using patient care to inform research and research to improve patient care...CRCs have provided human laboratories where diseases are studied and new treatments developed and tested. The CRCs include not only specialized inpatient beds and outpatient facilities, but a highly skilled group of research nurses, dietitians, research coordinators, technicians, and physicians who study patients with complex disorders...The decision to cut off funding for the CRCs comes as a surprise...the NIH leadership has ruled that funding...of the CRCs will no longer be permitted...This defunding is likely to lead to...abandonment of this vital resource for clinical research. The loss of the trained clinical nurses will be particularly damaging. The study of patients by academic physicians who intimately understand disease processes has long been under assault. Physician scientists, particularly those who focus on clinical research, have been marginalized in grant competitions for decades. The NIH’s unjustified decision to defund the CRCs further imperils their work...

The prices of antibiotics are too low. Low prices reduce the barrier to prescribing antibiotics, while high patient demand fosters overprescribing. Consequently, an estimated 20 to 50 percent of antibiotics dispensed in hospitals and about a third of those prescribed in physicians’ offices are inappropriate or unnecessary. Overuse breeds resistance...low prices discourage the development of new antibiotics…Even without a superbug, the CDC estimates that more than 2 million people annually are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria and more than 23,000 people die as a result...Unless we shift course, superbugs will become a fact of life. Here is a four-pronged approach that might work:

• every hospital must implement a drug stewardship program to reduce inappropriate antibiotic use.
• reduce inappropriate prescribing for colds, sore throats and other, mostly viral or self-limiting minor ailments, every antibiotic prescription should be electronically reviewed to be certain it meets national guidelines.
• the government and industry should collaborate to fund pre-clinical research on antibiotics — in other words, studies of how drugs get into and fight infections.
• we need financial prizes for researchers and companies who develop new antibiotics.

It’s a battle that seems ripped from a sci-fi film: Scientists are racing to develop new weapons to destroy the slimy colonies of bacteria, known as biofilms, that cause tens of thousands of deaths across the US each year...Biofilms are the leading cause of infections acquired in hospitals. They grow on medical devices such as heart valves, pacemakers, and catheters. They take root inside wounds, pulsing and rippling as they spread...Encased in gooey protective sheaths, biofilms are exceptionally hard to stop. Many are impervious to antibiotics. They also cost the health care system billions each year, as patients often require surgery to remove and replace contaminated implants...researchers and biotech startups are testing new methods of attack, from coating medical devices with spiky coverings to blasting bacteria with electrical fields to interrupting the chemicals that cells inside biofilm colonies use to send messages to each other...researchers at Ohio State announced they’d invented a way to coat the surfaces of medical devices with Y-shaped nanoparticles of quartz in a bid to block biofilms from latching on tight...

• Here’s a look at the battle:
• What are biofilms?
• Is this a new menace?
• Why are biofilms so hard to kill?
• So, what’s being done?

Nevada’s senior citizens’ health and quality of life were again ranked among the lowest nationally in a UnitedHealthcare report released last week, placing 42nd...America’s Health Rankings’ 2016 Senior Report takes into account 35 factors, including senior obesity and smoking rates, prevalence of falls, flu vaccination statistics and senior volunteerism...Nevada’s ranking was dragged down by factors including the state’s excessive drinking rate among seniors — self-reported at 9.2 percent...Nevada also suffers from comparatively low community support expenditures and flu vaccination coverage...The state’s strengths include a low prevalence of falls among seniors and a low rate of preventable hospitalizations among Medicare beneficiaries...Sandra Owens, a UNLV social work professor and expert in senior care, reviewed the report and described it as a good assessment of a state with work to do to improve health care for its elderly and overall populations.

Placing trust in science can be easier when findings are confirmed, but a new survey finds that most scientists believe there is a "crisis" in reproducibility...Specifically, 52 percent reported that replicating results is a "significant" problem and another 38 percent believe a "slight crisis" exists. More than 70 percent of researchers have tried and failed to reproduce another scientist’s experiments, according to Nature, which canvassed 1,576 researchers. And more than half of the respondents reported that they failed to reproduce their own experiments...Yet one-third believe that failing to reproduce results means that a study is probably just incorrect, and most of those asked say that they continue to trust published findings. Moreover, 73 percent think that at least half of the papers in their own fields can be believed...Merck executive recently suggested that drug makers should be entitled to get their money back for potential treatments licensed from universities if the company is unable to reproduce the results in subsequent experiments...the pharmaceutical industry has been under pressure to release trial results in order to verify claims about their medicines. The issue accelerated in the wake of several scandals about undisclosed side effects...