Metabolic modeling predicts unique drug targets in .

Lyme disease is often treated using long courses of antibiotics, which can cause side effects for patients and risks the evolution of antimicrobial resistance. Narrow-spectrum antimicrobials would reduce these risks, but their development has been slow because the Lyme disease bacterium, , is difficult to work with in the laboratory. To accelerate the drug discovery pipeline, we developed a computational model of 's metabolism and used it to predict essential enzymatic reactions whose inhibition prevented growth .

Performance evaluation of a non-invasive one-step multiplex RT-qPCR assay for detection of SARS-CoV-2 direct from saliva.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has proven to be the gold-standard for SARS-CoV-2 detection in clinical settings. The most common approaches rely on nasopharyngeal specimens obtained from swabs, followed by RNA extraction, reverse transcription and quantitative PCR. Although swab-based PCR is sensitive, swabbing is invasive and unpleasant to administer, reducing patient compliance for regular testing and resulting in an increased risk of improper sampling.

Antiphospholipid autoantibodies in Lyme disease arise after scavenging of host phospholipids by Borrelia burgdorferi.

A close association with its vertebrate and tick hosts allows Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium responsible for Lyme disease, to eliminate many metabolic pathways and instead scavenge key nutrients from the host. A lipid-defined culture medium was developed to demonstrate that exogenous lipids are an essential nutrient of B. burgdorferi, which can accumulate intact phospholipids from its environment to support growth.

The biofilm eradication activity of acetic acid in the management of periprosthetic joint infection.

Objectives: Periprosthetic joint infection following joint arthroplasty surgery is one of the most feared complications. The key to successful revision surgery for periprosthetic joint infections, regardless of treatment strategy, is a thorough deep debridement. In an attempt to limit antimicrobial and disinfectant use, there has been increasing interest in the use of acetic acid as an adjunct to debridement in the management of periprosthetic joint infections.

Evaluation of Staphylococcus aureus eradication therapy in orthopaedic surgery.

Purpose: Despite WHO recommendations, there is currently no national screening and eradication policy for the detection of methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) in the UK prior to elective orthopaedic surgery. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of current standard methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) eradication therapies in the context of S.