HDFx: A novel biologic immunomodulator may have the potential to prevent bacteria in space from becoming aggressively infectious and lethal

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Recent studies and experiments from several groups indicate that several, different types of bacteria (e.g., E. coli, S. enteriditis, S.typhimurium, and S. aureus) as well as the fungus Aspergillus fumigatus become many times more virulent in space than on Earth [1][2][3][4][5][6][7].They also grow faster, mutate more readily, become more infectious, and become more resistant to antibiotics [1,7,8], thus posing potential hazards to astronauts and space-travelers.Already, from several space missions, particularly at the space station, astronauts have (and are) responding in unexplained ways [1,[7][8][9].Soviet-era astronauts in the 1960s-1970s showed that Staphylococcus microorganisms aboard their spacecrafts demonstrated increased resistance to at least five common antibiotics [10][11][12].Zea and his colleagues have found that E. coli grew 13-times faster on the space station than on Earth [7].Overall, such data indicate that physiologic alterations of normally, non-lethal bacteria and viruses in space may change the health of astronauts in unpredictable manners during space voyages between planets, asteroids, and stars.