Antibiotic resistance is quietly spreading worldwide. According to the World Health Organization's (WHO) latest Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) report, one in six common bacterial infections worldwide could no longer be treated effectively with antibiotics in 2023, especially in areas with weaker health systems.

Targeted high-throughput sequencing technology can provide crucial support for infection prevention and guide precision treatment—helping to reduce antibiotic resistance that often arises from limited diagnostic capacity.

A 15-year retrospective study in adults admitted to the intensive care department at Donostia University Hospital has revealed crucial insights into invasive Streptococcus pyogenes (iGAS) infections. While the prevalence of the toxic M1uk strain has grown in Western Europe since the COVID-19 pandemic, mortality rates due to M1uk were not significantly higher. Timely treatment with clindamycin significantly reduced mortality rates, underscoring its importance in containing iGAS.

New research has updated our understanding of how sugars, known as glycans, help immune cells move into skin in the inflammatory disease, psoriasis

Researchers identified that immune cells, which have their own cell surface glycocalyx, shed this layer to help them move from the blood and into tissues in inflammatory skin disease, changing the previous understanding that it was only the blood vessel wall that altered its glycocalyx layer to aid this process.

Designing drugs to alter the movement of immune cells between the blood and tissues is a potential way to treat both infections and inflammatory diseases. Therefore, this research may alter the approach taken to develop drugs targeting the movement of immune cells into tissues.