A new hope in the fight against antibiotic resistant “superbugs”
Deployed troops who are wounded during operations, or training, are highly susceptible to bacterial infection and our Defence forces are active in areas where antibiotic resistant ‘superbugs’ have a foothold. A new US Department of Defense funded collaboration between the University of Melbourne (UoM) and the University of North Carolina (UNC) seeks to address the risk of “superbug” infection through the development of a novel wound dressing that both combats bacterial infection and reduces healing time.
The danger posed by antibiotic resistant ‘superbugs’ is a growing one that not only affects military operators but is also a huge global health burden. The cost of chronic wound care in USA alone is staggering. Over $2.6 billion per year is spent by the military and public healthcare systems on wound care, often due to lengthy hospitalisations because of infections caused by pan-drug resistant (PDR) bacterial pathogens that are resistant to all types of antibiotic.
“Our novel teixobactin-based antibiotic candidates could be employed as a stable and durable topical treatment that could form part of a combat medic or health professional’s tool-kit” says University of Melbourne lead researcher Dr Tony Velkov . “The realisation of a therapeutic based on our approach would be step-change advancement in the protection and medical treatment of our military personnel and its applicability to the broader health sector is huge.”
Teixobactins are a recently discovered antibiotic class that are typically only active against a sub-set of bacteria. The most notable property of the native compound however is that it’s the first and only resistance-resistant antibiotic. “Our novel teixobactin derivatives retain that important property while also imparting broad-spectrum coverage” says Dr Velkov. “The first necessary step is to demonstrate efficacy in a topical application but there is significant potential for our compounds as intravenous and oral therapeutics”.
The aim of the project is to apply the antibiotic directly to the infected wound thereby resulting in higher local concentrations. This needs to be achieved while also minimising broader exposure and possible associated side effects. “To realise this, we suspend our teixobactins in a specialised gel formulation that promotes controlled and sustained release of the antibiotic. In this way we hope to achieve both rapid and targeted bacteria killing properties in our bandages” continues Dr Velkov.
The UoM and UNC anti-infective research teams bring together considerable experience in therapeutic research and the development and validation of wound infection studies. They are partnering with industry to guide investigational new drug (IND) enabling studies and to assemble the preclinical toxicology studies.
The rise of antibiotic resistant bacterial “superbugs” is not only an acute and ongoing threat to operators in the battlefield but also presents as one of humanities gravest health challenges. The research team assembled around this project is at the vanguard of discovery in an arms race that the human beings can’t afford to lose.
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