Development of new therapeutics against Select Agents such as Francisella is critical preparation in the event of bioterrorism. Testing FDA-approved drugs for this purpose may yield new activities unrelated to their intended purpose and may hasten the discovery of new therapeutics. A library of 420 FDA-approved drugs was screened for antibiofilm activity against a model organism for human tular...

Wound infections are a serious medical problem for patients with non-healing chronic wounds and burn injuries. The healing of these wounds is often compromised by colonisation of many different bacteria, predisposing patients to life-threatening infections. Infected wounds continue to represent a complex problem for both health professionals and patients. Bacterial infections are a critical com...

MOTIVATION With the rapid increase of infection resistance to antibiotics, it is urgent to find novel infection therapeutics. In recent years, antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been utilized as potential alternatives for infection therapeutics. AMPs are key components of the innate immune system and can protect the host from various pathogenic bacteria. Identifying AMPs and their functional ty...

Similarities in fungal and animal cells make antifungal discovery efforts more difficult than those for other classes of antimicrobial drugs. Currently, there are only three major classes of antifungal drugs used for the treatment of systemic fungal diseases: polyenes, azoles, and echinocandins. Even in situations where the offending fungal organism is susceptible to the available drugs, treatm...

Sarcoidosis is an idiopathic multisystem disorder characterized by noncaseating epithelioid granulomas predominately affecting lungs and lymph nodes, but with potential to affect any organ system. Sarcoidosis shares similarities in development to other infectious granulomatous diseases, such as berylliosis and tuberculosis; however, its elusive etiology and non-distinctive histology have provid...