Publications by authors named "Maarten van Dongen"

The increasing availability of high-throughput sequencing (frequently termed next-generation sequencing (NGS)) data has created opportunities to gain deeper insights into the mechanisms of a number of diseases and is already impacting many areas of medicine and public health. The area of infectious diseases stands somewhat apart from other human diseases insofar as the relevant genomic data comes from the microbes rather than their human hosts. A particular concern about the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has driven the collection and reporting of large-scale datasets containing information from microbial genomes together with antimicrobial susceptibility test (AST) results.

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In 2015, 196 countries formally committed to a Global Action Plan to address antimicrobial resistance (AMR). However, translating policy into practice is not happening at pace and the recent Global Research on AntiMicrobial resistance (GRAM) Project report confirms the burden of AMR is increasing. Despite progress in establishing surveillance data and investment in new antimicrobials, education and training including use of behavioural science approaches to change practice is lagging.

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The continuing rise in global antimicrobial resistance is seen by many governments and international organizations as a major threat to worldwide health. This means that many publications have already described the problems concerning the overuse of currently available antibiotics and potential solutions to this crisis, including the development of new alternatives to antibiotics. However, in this manuscript, the authors approach the subject of increasing global antimicrobial resistance from two perspectives not normally covered by previous publications, namely the ethical use of antibiotics and potential issues relating to the implementation of new antibiotics.

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Antibiotic resistance, and, in a broader perspective, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), continues to evolve and spread beyond all boundaries. As a result, infectious diseases have become more challenging or even impossible to treat, leading to an increase in morbidity and mortality. Despite the failure of conventional, traditional antimicrobial therapy, in the past two decades, no novel class of antibiotics has been introduced.

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The history of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) evolution and the diversity of the environmental resistome indicate that AMR is an ancient natural phenomenon. Acquired resistance is a public health concern influenced by the anthropogenic use of antibiotics, leading to the selection of resistant genes. Data show that AMR is spreading globally at different rates, outpacing all efforts to mitigate this crisis.

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An ever-increasing demand for novel antimicrobials to treat life-threatening infections caused by the global spread of multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens stands in stark contrast to the current level of investment in their development, particularly in the fields of natural-product-derived and synthetic small molecules. New agents displaying innovative chemistry and modes of action are desperately needed worldwide to tackle the public health menace posed by antimicrobial resistance. Here, our consortium presents a strategic blueprint to substantially improve our ability to discover and develop new antibiotics.

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An ever-increasing demand for novel antimicrobials to treat life-threatening infections caused by the global spread of multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens stands in stark contrast to the current level of investment in their development, particularly in the fields of natural-product-derived and synthetic small molecules. New agents displaying innovative chemistry and modes of action are desperately needed worldwide to tackle the public health menace posed by antimicrobial resistance. Here, our consortium presents a strategic blueprint to substantially improve our ability to discover and develop new antibiotics.

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As of 23 April 2021, the outbreak of COVID-19 claimed around 150 million confirmed cases with over 3 million deaths worldwide. Yet, an even more serious but silent pandemic, that of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), is likely complicating the outcome of COVID-19 patients. This study discusses the current knowledge on the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 and highlights the likely contribution of the COVID-19 pandemic on the escalation of AMR.

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The COVID-19 pandemic presents a serious public health challenge in all countries. However, repercussions of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections on future global health are still being investigated, including the pandemic's potential effect on the emergence and spread of global antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Critically ill COVID-19 patients may develop severe complications, which may predispose patients to infection with nosocomial bacterial and/or fungal pathogens, requiring the extensive use of antibiotics.

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A novel approach is presented for studying the chemical interaction between receptor binding sites and ligands. Monohydroxylated polyaromatic compounds were found to be environmentally sensitive ligands when applying a special mode of fluorescence: fluorescence line-narrowing spectroscopy (FLNS). With this technique, solvent dependencies and ligand-receptor interactions can be studied in great detail, due to the high spectral resolution and the fact that at cryogenic temperatures (4 K), no solvent reorientation effects complicate the interpretation.

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A flow injection analysis (FIA) system for biochemical assays using time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer (TR-FRET) in the millisecond time scale was developed. As a model system, we studied a kinase assay, measuring the phosphorylation of poly(GT)-biotin (substrate) by a receptor tyrosine kinase (epidermal growth factor receptor). A streptavidin labeled with XL665 (SA-XL665)-the acceptor-was coupled to the biotin moiety, and an antiphosphotyrosine antibody labeled with europium cryptate (Ab-EuK)-the donor-was coupled to the phosphorylated tyrosine group(s).

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