The lactoperoxidase (LPO) antibiotic system is a well-characterized component of mammary and salivary gland secretions. Because LPO has been shown to function in ovine airways, human airway tissue and secretions were examined for the presence of LPO and its substrate, the anion thiocyanate (SCN-). In addition, human airway secretions were tested for LPO-mediated antibacterial activity, and LPO'...

Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease of antiquity. Yet TB today still causes more adult deaths than any other single infectious disease. Recent studies show that contrary to the common view postulating an animal origin for TB, Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC), the causative agent of TB, emerged as a human pathogen in Africa and colonized the world accompanying the Out-of-Africa migrations of...

According to the National Institutes of Health and the Center for Disease and Prevention, it is estimated that 65 to 80 percent of the human infectious are caused by biofilms. Antibiotics and drainage of purulent discharge are the main treatment measures. But in chronic infections sometimes these findings are not easy to recognize. Biofilm is an extracellular polymeric conglomeration generally ...

BACKGROUND Staphylococcus aureus exhibits tropisms to many distinct animal hosts. While spillover events can occur wherever there is an interface between host species, changes in host tropism only occur with the establishment of sustained transmission in the new host species, leading to clonal expansion. Although the genomic variation underpinning adaptation in S. aureus genotypes infecting bov...

  Ebola virus disease (formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever) is a severe, often fatal illness, with a death rate of up to 90%. The illness affects humans and nonhuman primates (monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees). Ebola first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks, one in a village near the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the other in a remote area of Sudan. T...

The Coronavirus disease 2019, identified by Chinese researchers to be the caused by a novel enveloped betacoronavirus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus- 2 which was first isolated in Wuhan, China has been declared a global pandemic by the world health organization. The virus has several structural proteins that contributed to its pathogenesis such as spikes, membrane, envelop and n...

background: dna immunization with plasmid dna encoding bacterial, viral, parasitic, and tumor antigens has been reported to trigger protective immunity. the use of plasmid dna vaccinations against many diseases has produced promising results in animal and human clinical trials; however, safety concerns about the use of dna vaccines exist, such as the possibility of integration into the host gen...

Viruses, including human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), reprogram cellular metabolism using host metabolic regulators to support virus replication. Alternatively, in response infection, the can use limit

Much has been learned about the diversity and distribution of human-associated microbial communities, but we still know little about the biology of the microbiome, how it interacts with the host, and how the host responds to its resident microbiota. The Integrative Human Microbiome Project (iHMP, http://hmp2.org), the second phase of the NIH Human Microbiome Project, will study these interactio...