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A long course of antibiotic treatment proved effective in reducing back pain symptoms in patients with chronic low back pain and bone oedema following a disc herniation.

Modic type 1 changes are present in 6% of the general population and 35–40% of the low back pain population. 100 days of antibiotic treatment with bioclavid was significantly more effective for this group of patients than placebo.

Canadian scientists used new high-throughput gene sequencing technology to
characterize the gut microbiota of 24 healthy infants from the CHILD birth cohort.

DNA sequencing allowed bacteria that are difficult to culture to be included in the survey. There were significant differences in bacterial species between infants, especially those who were formula-fed or born by cesarean delivery. Although any antibiotic use was recorded for most patients, the small sample size made it difficult to investigate how antibiotics may have influenced the differences observed.

Pandas’ innate immune systems produce an antimicrobial peptide that rapidly kills drug-resistant strains of bacteria.

Scientists at China’s Nanjing Agricultural University found the peptide, cathelicidin-AM, by mining the panda genome. The research showed that the synthesized peptide was effective against a wide spectrum of microorganisms. It killed bacteria by directly affecting the bacterial cell wall and membrane, and worked six times faster than existing antibiotic clindamycin.