Highlights include bacteria eating your cell’s weapons, using DNA sequencing to stop superbugs dead, CRE: scary and surprisingly prevalent, Yersinia enterocolitica trying to make a name for itself, and the WHO changing the way it reports H5N1. Happy Friday!

Bacteria hijack host cell process, create their own food supply to become infectious

Bacteria that turn your cells weapons into food. Now, if there’s one thing I’ve learned as a biodefense student, it’s that bacteria are very good at turning a surprising variety of things into food.

Phys.org – “Bacteria that cause the tick-borne disease anaplasmosis in humans create their own food supply by hijacking a process in host cells that normally should help kill the pathogenic bugs, scientists have found. This bacterium, Anaplasma phagocytophilum (Ap), secretes a protein that can start this process. The protein binds with another protein produced by white blood cells, and that connection creates compartments that siphon host-cell nutrients to feed the bacteria, enabling their growth inside the white blood cells”

Real-Time Genetics Could Squash “Superbug” Outbreaks before They Spread

This iteration of the Science article was included due to their use of the words “squash” and “dastardly”.

Scientific American – “Genetic sequences of drug-resistant bacteria have helped scientists better understand how these dastardly infections evolve—and elude treatment. But these superbugs are still claiming lives of many who acquire them in hospitals, clinics and nursing homes. And recent outbreaks of these hard-to-treat infections can spread easily in healthcare settings. Researchers might soon be able to track outbreaks in real time, thanks to advances in sequencing technology. So say Mark Walker and Scott Beaston, both of the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences and Australian Infectious Disease Research Center at the University of Queensland in Australia, in an essay published online November 29 in Science. ‘Genomic sequencing can provide information that gives facilities a head start in implementing preventive measures,’ they wrote.”

Deadly Bacteria that Defy Drugs of Last Resort

CRE is apparently present in 42 states, and has a case fatality of close to 40 percent (due to its extremely strong capacity for AB resistance.

USA Today – “A new family of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, known as CRE, is raising concerns across the medical community because of its ability to cause infections that defy even the strongest antibiotics. The antibiotic resistance is spread by mobile pieces of DNA that can move between different species of bacteria, creating new, drug-defying bugs.”

Resistant Bacteria in Pork — And Problematic Pharmaceuticals Too

Yersinia enterocolitica, apparently tired of living in the shadow of its flashy cousin, Yersinia pestis is apparently taking revenge by lodging itself in approximately 69% of  pork chops and ground pork. We understand the whole family rivalry, entero, but leave the pork chops alone, eh?

Wired – “Bad news today from an investigation conducted by Consumers Union that was released on the web and will be published in the January issue of the nonprofit’s magazine, Consumer Reports. Tests on pork chops and ground pork, bought in six cities under a variety of labels, showed high rates of contamination with a range of bacteria, many of which were antibiotic-resistant — and also showed evidence of a drug so controversial that it is banned in some other countries…”

WHO alters H5N1 reporting

Like so many of us who spend a lot of time online, the WHO is apparently fed up with having to constantly update it’s webpage:

Vaccine News – “The World Health Organization recently announced that it will begin reporting human cases of H5N1 avian influenza every month on its influenza webpage. The WHO said that cases of human infection with H5N1 will now only be reported on its Disease Outbreak News webpage when they are unusual or represent an increased risk for extended infections. WHO Member States will still be required to inform the organization of every sporadic incidence of human infection by H5N1 and novel virus infection as rMaking a Flu Vaccine Without the Virusequired by WHO’s international health regulations.

In case you missed it:

– Galapagos tests new antibiotics for resistant bacteria

– Making a Flu Vaccine Without the Virus

Name change time! We got tired of being confused with weed-killer, and besides, the Pandora Report has a certain snazz to it, don’t you think? If you hate it let us know, and we’ll brainstorm anew. Hope your respective Thanksgivings’ were appropriately filling! To the news:

Highlights include virus hunting in Cameroon, Mycoplasma zombies (for real), bacterial altruism, bacteria chatting about battle plans, Scottish honey as a potential MRSA treatment, and Ebola (of course).

What if a Deadly New Virus Jumped from Animals to Humans?

Not a lot here that you probably don’t already know, but it’s always a good idea to know how the media covers emergent diseases (if only so that you’re not completely flummoxed when someone asks about efficacy of bush meat hunters acting as viral sentinels). Also, I nominate “virus huntering” as an official choice for our degree concentration.

TIME – “In a rapidly interconnected world, the dangers and threats posed by virulent strains of terrifying infectious diseases has only multiplied. On the watch for deadly pandemics is Nathan Wolfe, acclaimed virus hunter and member of the 2011 class of the TIME 100. Wolfe spoke to the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with TIME, about future pandemics on the horizon.”

Mycoplasma “Ghosts” Can Rise From the Dead

For those of you too lazy to Google, Mycoplasma are interesting because they lack a cell wall (making them harder to kill)(antibiotics often target cell walls, as an easy way to distinguish between invading and host cells [human cells don’t have cell walls]).

The Artful Amoeba (Scientific American) – “As the titles of journal articles go, it’s hard to find one more elegant, enticing and — notably, if you’ve been in the business long — succinct than ‘Gliding Ghosts of Mycoplasma mobile’. But the substance of “Gliding Ghosts” is even better than the promise. That’s because the cellular propulsion system of Mycoplasma mobile does something extraordinary: with the addition of ATP, M. mobile‘s gutted and very much dead remains can get up and move as if they were alive.”

Engineered Bacteria Can Make the Ultimate Sacrifice for the Good of the Population

A little bacterial altruism, just in time for the holidays.

Science Daily– “Scientists have engineered bacteria that are capable of sacrificing themselves for the good of the bacterial population. These altruistically inclined bacteria, which are described online in the journal Molecular Systems Biology, can be used to demonstrate the conditions where programmed cell death becomes a distinct advantage for the survival of the bacterial population.”

Microbiology: Eavesdropping on bacterial conversations

Quorum sensing strikes again – helping bacteria coordinate their battle strategies to maximize making you sick.

Nanowerk News– “For decades, microbiologists thought that bacteria act individually, unaware of their multitudinous counterparts involved in causing the same infection. In the past two decades, however, they have discovered that many species of bacteria ‘communicate’. In fact, bacteria can signal to each other that their numbers are sufficient to launch a coordinated attack. Now, by working with Burkholderia cenocepacia, an opportunistic pathogen that infects cystic fibrosis patients, a research team led by Lian-Hui Zhang from the A*STAR Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) has described a previously unknown quorum-sensing system that is present in many human bacterial pathogens… ”

Sweet Medicine: Using Honey to Treat MRSA?

Those Scots. Now if only this treatment extended to other Scottish products ending in “y” [or “tch”], we would really be onto something.

The Scotsman – “Honey produced by thousands of Portobello bees may be used in the fight against killer superbugs like MRSA. Research from Queen Margaret University [Scotland] has shown that honey from the seaside is effective at killing common strains of bacteria which cause wound infections. The pilot research study – which got under way at the end of last year – found the locally produced honey was as effective at combating bugs as manuka honey from New Zealand. Funding is now being sought by the university to establish if it can fight antibiotic resistant bugs like MRSA.”

Uganda: Ebola – Why Uganda Is So Prone

Deforestation and encroachment of humans into wildlife habitats are both described as possible exacerbating factors of the Luweero Ebola outbreak.

All Africa – “In four months, the deadly viral haemorrhagic fevers have hit Uganda three times, killing at least 29 people in Uganda. An ongoing outbreak of a different strain of Ebola, following previous attacks of Ebola and Marburg, raises the question why we are becoming so vulnerable to these viral attacks. First to be hit, in July, was the western district of Kibaale, where Ebola claimed 17 lives including 12 from the same family.”

This has been around for a while now, but for those of you who haven’t seen it:

“Cops outraged after NYU class requires students to plot a terrorist attack” (NYP) – the article details NYU professor (and decorated  Navy veteran) Marie-Helen Maras, and her requirement that students produce a 10-15 page paper “hypothetically [planning] a terrorist attack”.

The course has been criticized in both the media ( Fox News, the Daily Mail) and anonymous sources within the NYPD – “When told of the term paper, one ranking police officer who lost coworkers on 9/11 called it ‘the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.’… ‘I’m disgusted,’ said the source. ‘What is this, we have our students do the work for the terrorists?’”

I’m just going to come right out and say it – this is completely absurd. It’s absurd on multiple levels. First, it’s not as if Maras’ exercise is unprecedented. It’s a standard Red Team/Blue Team exercise – in which one simulates an attack on one’s self – which have been used by everyone from the military to the intelligence and government agencies to think tanks (check out the RAND Corp chem/bio Red Team exercise) for decades. The benefits of this type of exercise are evident and unique – as the Central Intelligence Agency Tradecraft Primer states, “…Red Team analysis is aimed at freeing the analyst from the prison of a well-developed mind-set… [it] transforms the analyst into an ‘actor’ operating within the adversary’s culture and political milieu. This form of ‘role playing’ is useful when trying to replicate the mind-set of authoritarian leaders, terrorist cells, or other nonWestern groups that operate under very different codes of behavior or motivations.” In order to understand how our enemies will attack us, we first need to understand our enemy.

Like most security studies programs, the GMU Biodefense curriculum includes similar exercises – we pick a target, choose a biological agent, and plan an attack. When asked about the exercises, Dr. Trevor Thrall, Director of the GMU Biodefense program, clarified, “Though I can certainly understand how people may feel sensitive about discussing terrorist strategies in public venues, it is ridiculous to imagine that such exercises somehow create terrorists or provide training that would-be terrorist could not get in other ways.”

“What these exercises in fact do is provide emerging counter-terrorism professionals an opportunity to hone their thinking about the threats posted by terrorist organizations. The more time we spend figuring out how and why terrorism works, the better we will do at preventing and responding to terrorism. As a result we would never ask our faculty to shy away from red team/blue team exercises and the like,” he said.

As students, yes, we were pretty sure that our Google searches were being red-flagged in a dark room somewhere (as well they should have been), and yes, there were even moments of surprisingly visceral unease (again, as well there should have been). However, completing the assignment was one of the most illuminative and useful exercises of my education to date. Echoing Dr. Thrall’s comments, Tom Kreitzer, a Biodefense MS student and federal emergency response official, said, “Red teaming exercises are incredibly important for those already in, or attempting to join, the emergency response or intelligence fields.”

The exercises taught us that there are certain things you simply cannot know – cannot even realize you don’t know – until you actually try to do them. Planning the terrorist attack helped us not only to discover the hurdles bioterrorists face – and there are many – but it  also helped us illuminate potential US weaknesses. Identifying these weaknesses enables us to correct them before they can be exploited. If they can’t be corrected, it enables us to develop strategies, allocate resources, increase security, and plan.

One of the most serious and in some ways sad admonitions of the 9/11 Commission Report was that of the “lack of imagination” on our part. If we could have imagined worse, expected worse, thought humanity capable of worse, we maybe would have been better prepared. This is what makes the condemnation of Professor’s Maras’ assignment so troubling. By penalizing those attempting to teach the value of imaginative thinking, we risk trapping ourselves again in the status quo – a mistake we cannot afford to make again.

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Highlights include Meth as a home flu remedy, the PAHPA re-authorization, Salmonella: a force for good?, MRSA in your water (joke – that was a joke), the Ebola-related woes of the poor orangutan, and belly button bacteria.

Methamphetamine Reduces Human Influenza A Virus Replication

Now normally I am all for home flu remedies, but if it involves a black-windowed basement and a set-up out of Breaking Bad, I think I’ll pass.

Original Paper – “Methamphetamine (meth) is a highly addictive psychostimulant that is among the most widely abused illicit drugs, with an estimated over 35 million users in the world. Several lines of evidence suggest that chronic meth abuse is a major factor for increased risk of infections with human immunodeficiency virus and possibly other pathogens, due to its immunosuppressive property. Influenza A virus infections frequently cause epidemics and pandemics of respiratory diseases among human populations. However, little is known about whether meth has the ability to enhance influenza A virus replication, thus increasing severity of influenza illness in meth abusers. Herein, we investigated the effects of meth on influenza A virus replication in human lung epithelial A549 cells.”

Congress must act on Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness bill

Hurricane Sandy illustrated clearly the ongoing need for funding preparedness planning. Congress is taking up the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act in the coming weeks, which seeks to ensure funding for planning remains in place.

The Hill – “When Congress returns this month for the post-election Lame Duck session, they will have the opportunity to vote on legislation that would solidify the commitment of the federal government to protecting our nation’s critically ill and injured patients in the event of a disaster or emergency. If enacted, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act of 2011 – better known as PAHPA – would provide the resources necessary to improve the nation’s public health and medical preparedness, streamlining the federal government’s disaster planning and strengthening national preparedness for and responses to medical and public health emergencies and disasters, whether deliberate, accidental or natural.”

Arizona State University scientists engineer bacterial vaccine delivery system

Salmonella, making itself useful for something other than dramatic weight loss.

Vaccine News – “Arizona State University scientists have successfully engineered a strain of Salmonella bacteria capable of acting as a delivery system for vaccine antigens. The ASU team used the bacteria to protect mice against a lethal influenza strain, but they believe the approach is adaptable enough to be used against many different pathogens…’The technology that we’re describing in this paper can be used to develop a vaccine against any virus, any parasite, any fungus, whereas this was never possible before the development of recombinant attenuated bacterial strains like those produced in our lab,’ Dr. Roy Curtiss, the team’s leader, said.”

Deadly ‘Superbug’ Found in Water Treatment Plants

MRSA in your neighborhood bunnies, MRSA at your neighbourhood water treatment plant. MRSA: the world’s worst neighbor.

Smithsonian –  “Researchers from the University of Maryland and the University of Nebraska Medical Center have found that at least four water treatment plants in the United States contain superbugs, the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and the methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus. The concern is that the plants are putting sewage workers at risk for contracting the bacteria, and that plants that do not treat water with chlorine may be leaving the most lethal strains.”

Orangutans infected by mystery Ebola-like virus

Something very similar to the African Ebola viruses are popping up outside of Africa (dun dun dun anyone?) in, of all places, the already blighted Bornean orangutans.

New Scientist – “They are already the most endangered great apes. Now orang-utans may face an additional threat: Ebola virus, or something a lot like it. Bornean orang-utans have antibodies that recognise not just the Asian species of Ebola virus, but all four African Ebola viruses and a similar African virus called Marburg. None of the African viruses has ever been seen outside Africa before. The discovery was discussed at a conference last week by the study’s leader, Chairul Anwar Nidom of Airlangga University in Surabaya, Indonesia.”

Plunging into the Unknown: Belly Button Bacteria and You

And for your Friday fluff piece (no pun – ok, pun slightly intended), belly button bacteria (or BBB, for people in the know):

PLOS blog – “Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered what kinds of life might exist out there? Well, you can look down – at your belly button that is – and wonder the exact same thing. According to research published today in PLOS ONE, the belly button is home to an array of bacterial life ranging from the common (like Staphylococci) to the rare (like Archaea which have never been found before on human skin). Some bacteria, like those belonging to the Bacillus genus… are feisty – they battle against fungi and viruses.”

First things first, big congratulations to President Obama! Irrespective of where you stand politically, I think no political ads for another two years is a blessing for which we can all be grateful.

Now, to the face-palming. In the wake of Sandy, this FAQ on NOAA’s website has been receiving some attention:

Subject: C5c) Why don’t we try to destroy tropical cyclones by nuking them?

Now, I am a firm believer that there are no stupid questions. What’s depressing about this question is therefore the general, persistent lack of education on WMD  behind it. This unfortunately holds true not only for nuclear, but for chemical, radiological, and biological weapons as well. Ask the average person how many people a standard “dirty bomb” would kill, and I’ll wager their answer would be too high by an order of magnitude –  (don’t believe me? good for you, always check sources).

“Who cares?” you may ask.  As long as security sector professionals and academics understand the threat, what does it matter if the average American, who undoubtedly has much more pressing things to worry about, doesn’t?

It matters tremendously. We all fear what we don’t understand, and in some cases that fear can be as debilitating as the threat itself. For instance, in 1995, members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult released the chemical agent sarin on the Tokyo subway. Of the 5,510 people attended to at local hospitals, nearly 85 percent were “worried well” – those patients who were completely healthy, with  no symptoms and no exposure, but self-reported anyway. A similar phenomenon occurred after the 2001 Anthrax Letters attack. Demand for the drug Cipro (the antimicrobial used to treat anthrax) soared, even in places completely removed from the attacks (nearly a third of clinicians in Wisconsin and Minnesota were asked by patients for Cipro). According to some estimates, the number of these “worried well” patients in a given disaster can outnumber legitimate patients by 20:1. Now clearly, even experts on WMD can succumb to fear, but a better informed populace – one which knows sarin has a clear checklist of symptoms, or  that anthrax isn’t contagious – is less likely to panic.

Education on WMD is critical for preventive reasons too.  Understanding the absolute basics of how nuclear weapons are made is critical to really understanding the Iranian threat. Understanding the potential impact of chemical weapons is critical to understanding our concerns over the Syrian stockpile. Understanding the threat of biological weapons is critical to recognizing the importance of  strengthening international norms against their use.

Moral of the story? Education is important. Maybe we should designate a “National Educate-a-Friend on CBRN” day. It should be sooner rather than later though – the East Coast has another Nor’easter coming in, and there are already murmurs we should heat it out of existence with mists of plutonium-239.

For those of you curious about NOAA’s response to the hurricane-nuke scenario, see here.