Numerous natural products are awaiting discovery in all kinds of natural habitats. Especially microorganisms such as bacteria or fungi are able to produce diverse natural products with high biomedical application potential in particular as antibiotics and anticancer agents. Researchers have isolated red yeast of the species Rhodotorula mucilaginosa from a deep-sea sediment sample and analyzed for its genome and chemical constituents. The scientists succeeded in demonstrating its anticancer and antibacterial effects.

Researchers describe the effects of antibiotics on membrane vesicles, demonstrating that such drugs actively modify the properties of vesicle transport. Under the influence of antibiotics, MVs were produced and released by bacteria in greater abundance and traveled faster and further from their origin. The work sheds new light on these important information-carrying entities, implicated in many cellular communication processes, including antibiotic resistance.

Scientists have developed molecules that can remodel the bacterial population of intestines to a healthier state. They also have shown -- through experiments in mice -- that this approach reduces cholesterol levels and strongly inhibits the thickened-artery condition known as atherosclerosis.

Obese Europeans who are treated with cholesterol lowering drugs have not only lower values of blood LDL cholesterol and markers of inflammation but in addition a more healthy gut bacteria profile than those obese who are not prescribed statins.

Cells in some of the body's most vulnerable entry routes to bacterial infection buffer themselves when the immune system detects danger by reorganizing the cholesterol on their surfaces, a new study suggests.

The bacteria Streptococcus pneumoniae colonizes the nasopharynx and can cause pneumonia. Then, it can spread to the bloodstream and cause organ damage. To understand how this pathogen adapts to different locations in the body, and also how the host responds to the microbe, researchers have measured bacterial and host gene expression at five different sites in a mouse model -- the nasopharynx, lungs, blood, heart and kidneys -- using three genetically different strains of S. pneumoniae.

Scabs are the body's natural defense against bacteria. When bacteria get beneath a scab, the wound can become infected. This article covers how to tell if a wound is infected, some treatment options, and when to see a doctor.

Azithromycin is an antibiotic drug. It can help treat a range of bacterial infections that affect the lungs, sinuses, skin, and other parts of the body. Learn about its uses, risks, side effects, and how to use it here.

Researchers report the discovery of a key underlying immune mechanism that explains why to how our skin becomes inflamed from conditions such as atopic dermatitis, more commonly known as eczema. Toxin-producing bacteria on the surface of our skin induces a protein that causes our own cells to react and cause inflammation.

There are more and more examples of the ways in which we can benefit from our bacteria. According to new research, this is true for the skin as well. The work has shown that the most common bacteria on human skin secrete a protein which protects us from the reactive oxygen species thought to contribute to several skin diseases. The protein has an equally strong effect on dangerous oxygen species as known antioxidants such as vitamin C and vitamin E.