Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Plumbing the depths of women's bladders may shower researchers with viral gold.
In a wee survey, Loyola University Chicago researchers found the sac-like organ brimming with never-before-seen viruses that can kill and manipulate bacteria. Their findings, published this week in the Journal of Bacteriology, offer a first-pass catalogue of the rich diversity of bacteria-infecting viruses—aka "phages" or "bacteriophages"—in the bladder microbiome. The researchers suggest that further studies into the streaming viral content could one day lead to phage-based methods to void bacterial infections and identify disorders.
"The thought that there's not bacteria in urine is false," Catherine Putonti told Ars straight away. Putonti, a bioinformatics researcher and microbiologist at Loyola, is the leading author of the study. "The big picture is that there are a lot of viruses that are part of these bacterial communities as well."
With an early hold on what viruses are present in the bladder, the researchers are excited for more urinary deep dives to see if there's a core "bladder phageome" and what those viruses might be doing—or be able to do. "Now we can start asking questions," Putonti said.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @06:36PM (8 children)
Beth Mole is a massive water sports fan.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 04 2018, @06:41PM (5 children)
God the Ars Technica staff have the most punchable faces and the cringiest bios. I bet they eat more shit than the staff of Der Spiegel. They're like Chihuahuas or pugs, animals people hate just for being alive.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @07:09PM (2 children)
https://arstechnica.com/author/jonathan-m-gitlin/ [arstechnica.com]
https://arstechnica.com/author/diana-gitig-2/ [arstechnica.com]
https://arstechnica.com/author/samuelaxon/ [arstechnica.com]
https://arstechnica.com/author/ronamadeo/ [arstechnica.com]
https://arstechnica.com/author/annalee/ [arstechnica.com]
https://arstechnica.com/author/laserboy/ [arstechnica.com]
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday February 04 2018, @07:43PM (1 child)
Laserboy quit drinking. Good for him! I've known so many people that were so strong and so powerful but they were unable to stop drinking.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 04 2018, @07:59PM
WHAT? Ars writers crampin' my style?!
This means war. I've played with more lasers than you have, laserboy. I'm gonna see to it that you get a CO₂ drive laser burst so far up your ass that your molars will vaporize before you have time to flinch.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @08:08PM (1 child)
Ars Technica
Ars used to be pretty decent on tech dissections. If you saw an Ars article from ~2000 it was usually worth reading. They slowly evolved into a semi click baity thing. The SCO and GIF things are what did it. They found it was more interesting to talk about politics and law than tech. The articles while usually written semi decently are usually very shallow. It used to be one of the first things I would hit every day. For example the recent CPU thing. Ars of old would have had diagrams about what is going on and a 20 page tome on why it is and how it works. The Ars of today screams about how doomed we are and very little on they whys and hows it works. I have been watching a lot of linus tech tips on youtube. It has more of the old school Ars feel for doing bonkers things. But that was just one aspect of what I miss about them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @02:36AM
They also have several folks who are rabidly anti-FOSS.
Very often not a useful, unbiased source of information on topics that interest me.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @06:58PM (1 child)
Was this story intended to make someone say "Golden shower"?
(Score: 3, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday February 04 2018, @07:47PM
Many people say, "urine is sterile." It's not sterile. Be careful, folks!
(Score: 5, Interesting) by pdfernhout on Sunday February 04 2018, @07:36PM (1 child)
"Never-Before-Seen"? http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL9910/S00096.htm [scoop.co.nz]
"The [TV] programme revealed that we - ie humankind - had discovered a superior cure (to antibiotics) for bacterial infections around the same time that penicillin was being discovered. The research programme on bacteriophages (phages for short) began in Stalin's Georgia in the 1930s. To this day, our knowledge of each of the many thousands of phage viruses remains concentrated in a now rundown laboratory in Tbilisi, Georgia. The arrival of capitalism in the Caucuses threatens a repository of knowledge, built up over 50 years, that could prevent the superbug pandemic that threatens us all next century.
Phages are viruses that live in sewage. Each bacterium has a phage that represents its antidote. As new bacteria strains evolve, new phages evolve in tandem. If there is one thing faster than bacterial evolution, it is virus evolution. Phage therapy is a bit like homeopathy. A person with a bacterial infection must have it accurately diagnosed. Once diagnosed, the physician goes to a phial containing the correct phage, prepares a medicine (phages multiply quickly when allowed to) and administers it. The patient is soon cured, without side effects. If there is a new bacterium, its phage antidote is found eventually. The phage research programme involved a lot of patience: searching, identifying, classifying. Nothing was costly in the capitalist sense. Rather, it was very labour intensive work, performed in Georgia by a dedicated group of publicly-minded scientists. ...
While there are some genuine reasons why phage treatments of bacterial diseases were overlooked in the 1930s and 1940s, the failure to develop a western research program into bacteriophage treatment in the 1980s and 1990s represents an inexcusable failure of western capitalism. By the 1980s, there could be no denial that antibiotic resistance was going to be a major problem in (if not before) the twenty-first century. Yet, we just didn't want to know about what will probably turn out to be the most important medical breakthrough in the twentieth century; a breakthrough made in communist Georgia, in Stalin's Soviet Union.
It is embarrassing when western science is out-trumped, especially by the "communists". Usually, when out-trumped, we don't tell anyone. That's what happened here. Not only did we not have the nous to start a western programme in bacteriophage research; we looked the other way when the files of phials threatened to be destroyed following the breakup of the Soviet Union, and during the little reported civil war that engulfed Georgia a few years ago. So much for the knowledge economies of the west. How can such valuable knowledge be so cheap?
It's not too late for western medicine to enter the post-antibiotic bacteriophage era. Our grandchildren will hardly thank us if we persevere with our corporate-profit-motivated conservatism."
The biggest challenge of the 21st century: the irony of technologies of abundance used by scarcity-minded people.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by pdfernhout on Sunday February 04 2018, @09:40PM
US entreprenurial attempts: https://campother.blogspot.com/2011/04/phage-therapy-and-borrelia-burgdorferi.html [blogspot.com]
Conditions that can be treated with it at a facility in Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia:
http://www.phagetherapycenter.com/pii/PatientServlet?command=static_conditions&language=0 [phagetherapycenter.com]
In Tbilisi it is already being used to treat Urinary Tract Infections:
http://www.phagetherapycenter.com/pii/PatientServlet?command=static_uti [phagetherapycenter.com]
"Bacteriophages are particularly effective for treating urinary infections. Combinations of phages called "phage cocktails" are the main medication used during treatment. Phage cocktails work in a manner similar to the antibiotic/drug cocktails are employed by an infectious disease specialist to treat a resistant infection: in these cases, more than one drug is used to control or eliminate the infection. In theory, those bacteria that are not sensitive to one of the drugs tend to be sensitive to the other. Phage cocktails typically contain a minimum of three and usually more many phages that are effective for a given bacterial species. Unlike antibiotics, bacteriophages are able to break down biofilms. Phage cocktails have been shown to be very efficient at eliminating resistant strains and, given a high enough concentration, the phage cocktail will even evolve its effectiveness at a rate faster than the bacteria can acquire resistance characteristics from other bacteria involved or associated with the infection, or from the environment.
Because UTI's represent a wide range of conditions -- some that are potentially not caused by bacterial infection, Phage Therapy Center's treatment must always begin with a urine sample. This is required in order to detect what bacteria is causing the infection. This sample must sent to our laboratory several weeks prior to coming for treatment. Our laboratory grows the isolated strains and tests to be sure that the infection is sensitive to the commercial bacteriophage cocktail; if it is not sufficiently sensitive, then a custom phage cocktail (autophage) must be prepared for the patient. It is also desirable that the patient provide a medical report. If no infection is indicated in the sample, the patient should contact the Phage Therapy Center staff for additional instructions.
When the patient arrives at the clinic, a new sample is taken and tested; a complete examination is provided. Urine samples will be tested throughout the treatment to determine if the infection has changed and to verify that the phage cocktail remains effective.
In general, chronic urinary infections can requires a minimum of two weeks of outpatient care to complete. In some cases, as the biofilms clear and the dominant pathogens are eliminated, others pathogenic bacteria that did not initially show up in laboratory cultures may present in the urine sample. The clinic will re-test and match phages with these strains. This process may need to be repeated several times, until the infection is completely cleared, depending on the individual. Therefore, the patient should be prepared to stay at the clinic for the entire course of treatment in order to receive the best treatment results."
The biggest challenge of the 21st century: the irony of technologies of abundance used by scarcity-minded people.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday February 04 2018, @10:39PM
Nobody!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 05 2018, @04:53AM (3 children)
Is there a difference between male and female bladders? I also note that they use the term "women", rather than "female". Are these phages only present in the bladders of sexually mature women, and not in girls? Or - alternatively - this research was only conducted on women, perhaps in relation to women's reproductive health? Young girls may have the very same thing, and so may males have them, but only mature women have been studied so far?
It would be very interesting if only adult women have these phages, but I strongly suspect that there is no such difference between the male and female bladder, or kidneys.
We're gonna be able to vacation in Gaza, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and maybe Minnesota soon. Incredible times.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 05 2018, @05:01AM (1 child)
The studies were performed by people involved in women's health issues. So male bladders haven't been looked at, or even considered. By extension, I don't think age has been considered, either. The focus has been on those people who tend to seek out gynecology services - no males, no youngsters. When they look further afield, they may establish that there are differences between older and younger females, or that there are differences between males and females. Or not.
We're gonna be able to vacation in Gaza, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and maybe Minnesota soon. Incredible times.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday February 05 2018, @07:29AM
but very few men do.
Fun Fact: Methenamine is commonly used to treat women's urinary tract infections. That same chemical is also known as HMTA - the TA is for Tetramine but I don't recall what the HM is for.
HMTA, any flavor of Kool-Ade mix other than lemon, two coffee filters, a bag of party ice, a large bowl, a water glass, hydrogen peroxide and a spaghetti strainer are all you need to prepare the suicide bomber's very favorite explosive detonator: HMTD, or Hexamethyl Triperoxy Diamine.
I once rang up the FBI then explained how to make HMTD, as well as the trivia that all those can be purchased at any well-stocked grocery store.
The agent - who I expect was carefully trained to be surprised at nothing - quite desperately said "But what can just one person do?"
Remember: Any Flavor But Lemon
I won't tell you why you can't use Lemon. But I will tell you that the result is not an explosive. It's also quite funny.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Monday February 05 2018, @11:46AM
Apparently [gpnotebook.co.uk] UTIs are far more common in women than men, but The rate of incidence is equal between the sexes in the first year of life.
Not impossible that women have additional defences.
(Score: 3, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday February 05 2018, @07:23AM
The Soviets were into phages long before anyone else.
The article I read explained that their development and widespread use of phages resulted from the Cold War, with the West refusing to sell them antibiotics.
They still practice phage therapy. Also in that article was a sick patient who tried all of the antibiotics but none of them cured the disease. Her doctor advised her to travel to Russia so she could visit a phage clinic in person.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]