An international research team said it has discovered an important signal transmitting pathway in bacteria, which block the bacterial pathogenicity when damaged, suggesting new directions for drug development.
The council said that a research team led by Chou Shan-ho (周三和), a professor at National Chung Hsing University’s Institute of Biochemistry, and Robert Ryan, a professor at the University of Dundee’s College of Life Sciences in the UK, has identified the modulating factor that allows bacteria to gather together causing life-threatening infections.
“Most bacteria are single-celled organisms and their pathogenicity only occur when many of them get together,” Chou said, “so we try to destroy them, by blocking the communication between them, thus allowing our body to have enough time to produce the effective immune reaction for killing the bacteria.”
He said antibiotics in the past remained effective for about 20 to 30 years before bacteria became antibiotics-resistant, but now sometimes it only takes two to three years.
The team’s discovery may contribute to developing antibiotics that will not lead to drug-resistant strains, boost immune responses and become a new effective direction for drug development, he said.
Many drugs today are designed to kill specific disease-causing bacteria. Antibiotics overuse has increased the virulence of drug-resistant strains, the National Science Council said.
A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found at least 23,000 Americans die from these infections annually.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow