A Synthetic Cyclized Antimicrobial Peptide with Potent Effects against Drug-Resistant Skin Pathogens.

Dermal infections requiring treatment are usually treated with conventional antibiotics, but the rise of bacterial resistance to first-line antibiotics warrants alternative therapeutics. Here, we report that a backbone-cyclized antimicrobial peptide, CD4-PP, designed from the human host defense peptide LL-37, has strong direct antibacterial effects on antibiotic sensitive as well as resistant-type strains and clinical isolates of common skin pathogens in the low (<2) μM range. In addition, it influences innate immunity in keratinocytes, and treatment with CD4-PP is able to clear bacterial infections in infected keratinocytes.

Changes in testing and incidence of and - the possible impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the three Scandinavian countries.

Background: This study aimed to investigate what impact the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions had on and infections in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, countries with very different governmental strategies for handling this pandemic.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of data collected requests to Swedish regions and to health authorities in Denmark and Norway. The data were collected for the years 2018-2020 and the data from Sweden were more detailed.