Model probes possible treatments for neonatal infection, a common cause of infant death

(University of Alabama at Birmingham) Extremely premature infants are at risk for life-threatening infections called late-onset sepsis, or LOS, that spread into their bodies from the intestine. Researchers now report a new model for LOS, and they show that disrupting the normal maturation of gut microbes can make newborn mouse pups highly susceptible to LOS. Furthermore, they found they could prevent the deadly infection by giving the pups specific protective bacteria before a challenge with inv...