Genesis Dental Technologies, LLC Launches New Web Site Featuring the AquaSept(TM) Independent Water Delivery System to Prevent Disease Transmission in Dental Water
NEWS RELEASE
ELMWOOD, Wis., June 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Researchers, microbiologists, dental professionals and organizations have known for decades about potential risks and concerns of disease transmission caused by dental water containing high levels of bacteria and biofilm. As health professionals became more aware of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis/respiratory infections, hepatitis, bacterial endocarditis, legionnaires disease and pseudomonas-related diseases in immune-compromised patients, more CDC recommendations were issued and are now referred to as standard precautions. Still with all these precautions and the ability to measure the bacterial levels, lethal drug-resistant strains continue to spread around the country and are frequently reported in national news. A few months ago a hepatitis B transmission between two patients in one dental office was reported (The Journal of Infectious Diseases 2007; 195:1311- 1314). The route of transmission is still under investigation.
In order to reduce patient risk of disease transmission due to shared dental water, the CDC issued guidelines in December 2003 (see http://www.aquasept.com/, go to The Library, Links and Downloads page and review pages 28, 29, 30, and 46 of the PDF version of the CDC Guidelines). These guidelines specify the use of sterile irrigation fluids during any invasive procedure where tissue penetration is likely to occur. To comply with CDC Guideline, the dental professional can install an AquaSept(TM) Independent Water Delivery System. This system provides for the sterile delivery of irrigation fluids through a sterilized container, sterilized fluid delivery line and the sterilized dental handpiece. This allows the dental professional to provide each patient with separate, sterile dental water and practice the best possible dental water infection control standards for the benefit of the patient and all associates in the dental office.
There is a potential time bomb lurking in current dental office water systems. The current design of all built-in water systems is the bi-directional flow of fluid. While the largest portion of fluid is expelled out the end of the handpiece, friction causes a "passive retraction" of microscopic particles from the patient's mouth, through the dental instrument, up the water line and into the water reservoir. (See the "Biofilm" section of http://www.aquasept.com/). The continued use of the same water line and water reservoir among a group of patients results in cross contamination of the dental water among patients. The AquaSept(TM) Independent Water Delivery System prevents and protects patients from such cross contamination.
To quote a prominent dental professional with years of private practice and dental university experience: "In the 21st Century, the danger of infectious disease is heightened because of 1) the emergence of more dangerous microbes that defy medical treatment and can lead to a fatality, 2) a rise in patients who are immuno-compromised due to other conditions, and are therefore much more susceptible to disease with fatal consequences and 3) a rise in antibiotic-resistant strains." Robert Hasel, D.D.S.
Genesis Dental Technologies, LLC is a division of Genesis Industries, Inc. founded in June 1985 and is located in Elmwood, WI, about an hour east of the St. Paul/Minneapolis metro area.
For information on the AquaSept(TM) Independent Water Delivery System, please contact Genesis Dental Technologies, LLC at 715-639-2042, 1-800-523-8185 or email info@aquasept.com. For additional information visit http://www.aquasept.com/. Genesis Dental Technologies, LLC
CONTACT: John Dykstra, Sales and Marketing of Genesis Dental
Technologies, +1-715-639-2042, fax, +1-715-639-9205, johnd@aquasept.com
Web site: http://www.aquasept.com/
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Anacor's boron-based drug stops the rot
25/06/2007 - An unusual drug that contains a crucial boron atom can effectively treat fungal infections, and could also prove invaluable in the effort to counter antibacterial drug resistance.
Scientists from the young US pharma firm Anacor developed AN2690, the first in a new class of antibiotics that contain a crucial boron atom. Together with a team from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) outstation in Grenoble, France, the researchers have now discovered exactly how the drug works.
"We have discovered a new compound that has the potential to treat common chronic nail infections caused by fungi [onychomycosis]," said Dickon Alley, a researcher at Anacor Pharmaceuticals.
"Now that we know how AN2690 works, the same approach could be adapted to target other aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases with editing sites and also other pathogenic microbes," said Stephen Cusack, Head of EMBL.
"We are now working towards finding related antibacterial compounds that could help counter the problem of antibiotic resistance."
Alley explained that the compound kills fungi by blocking their ability to make proteins. It does this by blocking an enzyme called leucyl-tRNA synthetase, which is involved in translation, one of the last steps in the process of turning a gene's DNA code into a protein.
The process begins when the cell makes an RNA version of the gene's code, called messenger RNA (mRNA). Ribosomes, the cell's protein synthesis machinery, then translate the mRNA into protein by stitching together the amino acids in the order specified by the message. This requires the help of molecules called transfer RNAs (tRNAs), which link the mRNA to the correct amino acid.
Leucyl-tRNA synthetase is one of a group of enzymes called aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases that attach the correct amino acid to each tRNA. Some of these enzymes have two main functional parts, or active sites: a site that links the amino acid to the tRNA, and a separate editing site that proofreads this process and removes wrongly added amino acids.
To find out how exactly AN2690 blocks leucyl-tRNA synthetase Stephen Cusack, Head of EMBL Grenoble, and his team generated crystals of the enzyme bound to tRNA in the presence of AN2690.
They then used X-rays to examine the structure of the complex. Cusack and his colleagues found that AN2690 sticks in the editing site of the enzyme where it makes a very strong bond to the end of the tRNA, trapping it on the enzyme.
This stops the enzyme working and thus blocks protein synthesis, killing the fungal cell. The mechanism crucially depends on a boron atom that is part of AN2690, which is needed to link the compound to the tRNA.
According to Anacor, it is the first time that scientists have described such a mechanism, suggesting boron containing compounds as a promising new class of drug candidates. The drug itself is currently in Phase II trials.
The pharma industry in general is watching this approach keenly. In February, Schering-Plough paid over $575m ($40m upfront) to gain the exclusive global rights to AN2690 from Anacor. Historically, several other pharma companies have also shown an interest in aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase inhibitors.
Curiously, as far back as 1999, AstraZeneca (then plain Zeneca), had a patent issued for an assay to identify potential drugs aimed at this target. However, whether this technology bared any fruit is unclear.
In June 2006, AZ announced that its "genomic approach to anti-bacterials is yielding its first candidates". The company was referring to AZD1279, a bactericidal antibiotic from a new chemical class, which has showed good in vitro activity against resistant organisms including Streptococcus pneumoniae. AZ said at the time that the drug would enter Phase I clinical trials for respiratory infections in 2006.
The target for this drug was never disclosed however, and a spokesperson for AZ told DrugResearcher.com that the drug has now been scrapped, although she couldn't say why this decision had been taken.
Cubist Pharmaceuticals is, or at least was, interested in this target as well, having penned an academic article called 'Aminoacyl tRNA synthetases as targets for new anti-infectives' in a 1999 edition of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology journal. However, again, there is no mention of this target on their website and the company was unable to confirm whether this target was still being investigated.
Why Anacor's drug seems to be enjoying success where others have failed is not known. However, it is good news for onychomycosis sufferers, the patients AN2690 aims to treat initially. It affects approximately 7 to 10 per cent of the US population, including 48 percent of those over age 70. More than 90 percent of those cases are caused by two specific fungi: Trichophyton rubrum and Trichophyton mentagrophytes. However, current treatments are limited, according to Anacor.
Existing topical treatments only succeed in 12 per cent of cases, despite sales accounting for $300m (€223m). Whereas systemic treatments are more effective (in around half of all cases), they have known toxicity. Novartis' Lamisil (terbinafine) generated sales of $978m in 2006 but the same drug has, in rare cases caused liver failure. These have resulted in the need for a transplant and even death, although the relationship between the liver problems and the drug is "uncertain", according to the drug's approved label, as the patients' involved had serious pre-existing liver conditions.
Scientists from the young US pharma firm Anacor developed AN2690, the first in a new class of antibiotics that contain a crucial boron atom. Together with a team from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) outstation in Grenoble, France, the researchers have now discovered exactly how the drug works.
"We have discovered a new compound that has the potential to treat common chronic nail infections caused by fungi [onychomycosis]," said Dickon Alley, a researcher at Anacor Pharmaceuticals.
"Now that we know how AN2690 works, the same approach could be adapted to target other aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases with editing sites and also other pathogenic microbes," said Stephen Cusack, Head of EMBL.
"We are now working towards finding related antibacterial compounds that could help counter the problem of antibiotic resistance."
Alley explained that the compound kills fungi by blocking their ability to make proteins. It does this by blocking an enzyme called leucyl-tRNA synthetase, which is involved in translation, one of the last steps in the process of turning a gene's DNA code into a protein.
The process begins when the cell makes an RNA version of the gene's code, called messenger RNA (mRNA). Ribosomes, the cell's protein synthesis machinery, then translate the mRNA into protein by stitching together the amino acids in the order specified by the message. This requires the help of molecules called transfer RNAs (tRNAs), which link the mRNA to the correct amino acid.
Leucyl-tRNA synthetase is one of a group of enzymes called aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases that attach the correct amino acid to each tRNA. Some of these enzymes have two main functional parts, or active sites: a site that links the amino acid to the tRNA, and a separate editing site that proofreads this process and removes wrongly added amino acids.
To find out how exactly AN2690 blocks leucyl-tRNA synthetase Stephen Cusack, Head of EMBL Grenoble, and his team generated crystals of the enzyme bound to tRNA in the presence of AN2690.
They then used X-rays to examine the structure of the complex. Cusack and his colleagues found that AN2690 sticks in the editing site of the enzyme where it makes a very strong bond to the end of the tRNA, trapping it on the enzyme.
This stops the enzyme working and thus blocks protein synthesis, killing the fungal cell. The mechanism crucially depends on a boron atom that is part of AN2690, which is needed to link the compound to the tRNA.
According to Anacor, it is the first time that scientists have described such a mechanism, suggesting boron containing compounds as a promising new class of drug candidates. The drug itself is currently in Phase II trials.
The pharma industry in general is watching this approach keenly. In February, Schering-Plough paid over $575m ($40m upfront) to gain the exclusive global rights to AN2690 from Anacor. Historically, several other pharma companies have also shown an interest in aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase inhibitors.
Curiously, as far back as 1999, AstraZeneca (then plain Zeneca), had a patent issued for an assay to identify potential drugs aimed at this target. However, whether this technology bared any fruit is unclear.
In June 2006, AZ announced that its "genomic approach to anti-bacterials is yielding its first candidates". The company was referring to AZD1279, a bactericidal antibiotic from a new chemical class, which has showed good in vitro activity against resistant organisms including Streptococcus pneumoniae. AZ said at the time that the drug would enter Phase I clinical trials for respiratory infections in 2006.
The target for this drug was never disclosed however, and a spokesperson for AZ told DrugResearcher.com that the drug has now been scrapped, although she couldn't say why this decision had been taken.
Cubist Pharmaceuticals is, or at least was, interested in this target as well, having penned an academic article called 'Aminoacyl tRNA synthetases as targets for new anti-infectives' in a 1999 edition of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology journal. However, again, there is no mention of this target on their website and the company was unable to confirm whether this target was still being investigated.
Why Anacor's drug seems to be enjoying success where others have failed is not known. However, it is good news for onychomycosis sufferers, the patients AN2690 aims to treat initially. It affects approximately 7 to 10 per cent of the US population, including 48 percent of those over age 70. More than 90 percent of those cases are caused by two specific fungi: Trichophyton rubrum and Trichophyton mentagrophytes. However, current treatments are limited, according to Anacor.
Existing topical treatments only succeed in 12 per cent of cases, despite sales accounting for $300m (€223m). Whereas systemic treatments are more effective (in around half of all cases), they have known toxicity. Novartis' Lamisil (terbinafine) generated sales of $978m in 2006 but the same drug has, in rare cases caused liver failure. These have resulted in the need for a transplant and even death, although the relationship between the liver problems and the drug is "uncertain", according to the drug's approved label, as the patients' involved had serious pre-existing liver conditions.
MRSA test call for farm animals
All farm animals should be tested for a form of the superbug MRSA, an organic group has urged the government.
The Soil Association says the bug is widespread in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, from where some of the meat eaten in the UK is imported.
In the Netherlands, 39% of pigs tested positive for the bug which can be passed to humans.
And 13% of calves also tested positive for the bug, which is different to the strain found in hospitals.
Poultry meat
The studies found that 50% of farmers were also positive, some of whom have been resistant to antibiotics.
The Soil Association blamed the use of antibiotics in farming for the problem.
No MRSA has been found in British farm animals but poultry meat and pork is imported from infected countries.
The Food Standards Agency says people will not catch the bug from meat if it is prepared hygienically and cooked properly.
Source:- BBC News
The Soil Association says the bug is widespread in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, from where some of the meat eaten in the UK is imported.
In the Netherlands, 39% of pigs tested positive for the bug which can be passed to humans.
And 13% of calves also tested positive for the bug, which is different to the strain found in hospitals.
Poultry meat
The studies found that 50% of farmers were also positive, some of whom have been resistant to antibiotics.
The Soil Association blamed the use of antibiotics in farming for the problem.
No MRSA has been found in British farm animals but poultry meat and pork is imported from infected countries.
The Food Standards Agency says people will not catch the bug from meat if it is prepared hygienically and cooked properly.
Source:- BBC News
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Bird flu cases in southern Germany show highly pathogenic H5N1 variant
25 Jun 2007 bbj.hu
At least some of the cases of bird flu discovered this weekend near the southern city of Nuremberg involve a highly pathogenic variety of the H5N1 strain, Germany's Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection said Sunday.
All seven of the birds — five swans, one duck and one goose found dead on Friday and Saturday — had the H5N1 strain, and further tests were still ongoing to determine if they were infected with the highly pathogenic variety. The country's top veterinary laboratory, the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, confirmed that three wild birds - two swans and a goose - found in two lakes near Nuremberg had tested positive for the worst strain of the H5N1 virus – Reuters reports.
It is the first bird flu discovered in Germany this year, and the first report of wild birds infected this year within the European Union. The H5N1 strain has, however, been found in poultry farms in three other EU countries this year: Hungary, Britain and the Czech Republic, the European Commission said.
Thirteen EU nations were hit by bird flu last year — Austria, Denmark, Poland, Italy, Greece, Britain, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Hungary and France. Bird flu is believed to spread along bird migration routes. The H5N1 strain has decimated poultry stocks since 2003 and killed at least 191 people worldwide, most of them directly infected by sick birds in Asia. Experts fear, however, that the virus could mutate into a form easily transmitted between people. (iht.com)
At least some of the cases of bird flu discovered this weekend near the southern city of Nuremberg involve a highly pathogenic variety of the H5N1 strain, Germany's Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection said Sunday.
All seven of the birds — five swans, one duck and one goose found dead on Friday and Saturday — had the H5N1 strain, and further tests were still ongoing to determine if they were infected with the highly pathogenic variety. The country's top veterinary laboratory, the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, confirmed that three wild birds - two swans and a goose - found in two lakes near Nuremberg had tested positive for the worst strain of the H5N1 virus – Reuters reports.
It is the first bird flu discovered in Germany this year, and the first report of wild birds infected this year within the European Union. The H5N1 strain has, however, been found in poultry farms in three other EU countries this year: Hungary, Britain and the Czech Republic, the European Commission said.
Thirteen EU nations were hit by bird flu last year — Austria, Denmark, Poland, Italy, Greece, Britain, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Hungary and France. Bird flu is believed to spread along bird migration routes. The H5N1 strain has decimated poultry stocks since 2003 and killed at least 191 people worldwide, most of them directly infected by sick birds in Asia. Experts fear, however, that the virus could mutate into a form easily transmitted between people. (iht.com)
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