infectious disease
In
2013 $1.4M 2012 $700,000 2010 $350,000
The Division of Infectious Diseases has more than tripled clinical revenues since 2010.
Small but Mighty A small group of scientists aims to solve the mysteries of infections that have baffled us for decades. Their work has earned the Division of Infectious Diseases its place as our top-funded research group
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CINCINNATI CHILDREN’S RESEARCH FOUNDATION
“Every one of us who contributes to the clinical and research missions can think of that one child who made us say, ‘I’ve got to figure this out.’”
the weakened body of a hospitalized child, the common yeast Candida can quickly transform from a passive presence on the skin and in the GI tract to an invasive, destructive fungus. Gaining entrance often through a central venous line, the fungus travels through the bloodstream into the most remote recesses of the body, eating away at tissue and allowing toxins and bacteria to enter the system at an alarming rate. So it was with a young patient Peggy Hostetter, MD, recalls from some 25 years ago — a little boy undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia who developed a Candida infection from his central line. “I was a young attending in infectious disease at the University of Minnesota,” Hostetter recalls. “I’d seen lots of kids with Candida infections. I knew we could treat it and cure him with amphotericin, the only drug we had for the infection back then.” Hostetter explained this to the boy’s parents. The child died within 48 hours. Shocked by this turn of events, she searched the literature to see what was known about Candida. “There was nothing there,” she says. “So I decided, ‘I’ve got to study this.’” Study it she did. And now Hostetter, who is Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Cincinnati Children’s, has made a potentially game-changing finding that she believes could prevent infections like that young boy’s. Hostetter’s research revealed that the heparin fed through central lines to prevent clotting binds with the Candida yeast that lives on and in all of us. Candida uses this binding to elude the body’s defenses and to form biofilms within catheters. Biofilms are the first step in bloodstream infections with the yeast. The agent that Hostetter and her team developed prevents this binding; the discovery has been patented and the medical center is seeking licensing for human trials. CINCINNATICHILDRENS.ORG/RESEARCH
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