Posted on 03/25/2009 5:03:20 PM PDT by smokingfrog
A new weapon that could help wipe out the deadly MRSA virus has been developed by researchers from Northern Ireland.
Experts from Queen’s University have discovered new agents that can kill colonies of MRSA and other antiboitic resistant hospital-acquired |infections.
The antimicrobial agents also prevent any growth of the potentially lethal bacteria.
The breakthrough was made by a team of eight researchers from the Queen's University Ionic Liquid Laboratories (QUILL) Research Centre led by Brendan Gilmore, a lecturer in Pharmaceutics, and assistant director of QUILL Dr Martyn Earle. The discovery has been published in the |scientific journal, Green Chemistry.
Dr Earle said: “We have shown that, when pitted against the ionic liquids we developed and tested, biofilms offer little or no protection to MRSA, or to seven other infectious microorganisms.
“Our goal is to design ionic liquids with the lowest possible toxicity to humans while wiping out colonies of bacteria that cause hospital acquired infections.”
Many types of bacteria, such as MRSA, exist in colonies that stick to the surfaces of materials. The colonies often form coatings, known as biofilms, which protect them from antiseptics, disinfectant, and |antibiotics.
Ionic liquids, just like the table salt sprinkled on food are salts. They consist entirely of ions — electrically-charged atoms or groups of atoms. Unlike table salt, however, which has to be heated to over 800 degrees celsius to become a liquid, the ionic |liquid antibiofilm agents remain |liquid at the ambient temperatures found in hospitals.
One of the attractions of ionic liquids is the opportunity to tailor their physical, chemical, and biological properties by building specific features into the chemical structures of the positively-charged ions (the cations), and/or the negatively-charged ions (the anions).
(Excerpt) Read more at belfasttelegraph.co.uk ...
One of its first effects is confusion.
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and it isn’t a virus either
or is that what you meant and i was just slow on the draw?
I wonder if the author realizes there is a difference between bacteria and virii?
: )
If this is able to rid us of the MRSA virus then God bless those researchers.
My mother contracted the MRSA virus while hospitalized for COPD. She was so sick and weak that she didn’t have the strength to overcome the MRSA blood infection and the lung infection associated with COPD. They gave her every IV antibiotic they had and it just wasn’t enough.
If they can cure this horrible bug it will be a huge blessing to those hospitalized who contract it through no fault of their own.
:(
All they had to do was use grapefruit seed extract. It is loaded with calcium ions, so while harmless to human cells, it is brutal to microorganisms. Calcium is about on a par with chlorine an oxygen as far as its antibacterial properties.
However, the standard problem with any antiseptic agent is that once cleaned, things rapidly become recontaminated. So why not take advantage of the situation.
If “healthy”, non-pathogenic bacteria occupy a space, it cannot also be occupied by a pathogen. This is why we are not continually ill, though a percent of our intestinal flora are pathogenic—like having hundreds of low level infections at once—none of which create a problem. Because they are counterbalanced and subdued by healthy microorganisms.
So when a surgeon scrubs up, as a last step, why doesn’t he put harmless bacteria on his much cleaner hands?
The author describing it as the "MRSA virus" indicates that the answer is "no."
Was she a smoker?
MRSA...quite a different animal.....
Hospitals are a great place for even the healthy to become deathly ill, these days. It’s hard to believe, and it’s a sad anniversary, but my dad passed away almost a year ago, after several hospital stays. I used those omnipresent hand sanitizers every time I touched anything, and still worried about pathogens acquiring resistance to even that.
“MRSA virus”???
So glad the reporter knows the difference between viruses and bacteria.......
“MRSA infection is caused by Staphylococcus aureus bacteria — often called “staph.” MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It’s a strain of staph that’s resistant to the broad-spectrum antibiotics commonly used to treat it. MRSA can be fatal.”
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mrsa/DS00735
Yes, someone we cared about died from MRSA.
The first sentence says that MRSA is a virus. Therefore this article has NO credibility whatsoever.
That's clostridium difficile bacteria the fecal implants are trying to cure.
I've had c. diff. and don't want it again. Got it after an intensive antibiotic dosage. Took a total of 17 days of flagyl treatment to cure.
These boogers are really tough. When presented with a hostile atmosphere, they convert to spores, and chlorine (bleach) is about the only thing that gets them in that state.
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