Scientists Develop Novel Class of Antibiotic against Wide Range of Bacteria
Source: The Wistar Institute
December 23, 2020
Wistar Institute scientists have designed a new class of antimicrobial compound, which, they claim, uniquely combines direct antibiotic killing of pan drug-resistant pathogenic bacteria, with a simultaneous rapid immune response for combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The team claims the dual-acting immuno-antibiotics (DAIA) strategy could represent a “landmark” in the fight against AMR.
“We took a creative, double-pronged strategy to develop new molecules that can kill difficult-to-treat infections while enhancing the natural host immune response,” said Farokh Dotiwala, MBBS, PhD, assistant professor in the Vaccine & Immunotherapy Center and lead author of the team’s work, which is reported in
Credit: The Wistar Institute
PHILADELPHIA (Dec. 23, 2020) Wistar Institute scientists have discovered a new class of compounds that uniquely combine direct antibiotic killing of pan drug-resistant bacterial pathogens with a simultaneous rapid immune response for combatting antimicrobial resistance (AMR). These finding were published today in
Nature.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared AMR as one of the top 10 global public health threats against humanity. It is estimated that by 2050, antibiotic-resistant infections could claim 10 million lives each year and impose a cumulative $100 trillion burden on the global economy. The list of bacteria that are becoming resistant to treatment with all available antibiotic options is growing and few new drugs are in the pipeline, creating a pressing need for new classes of antibiotics to prevent public health crises.
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DARPA and JPEO-CBRND Award $37.6M to The Wistar Institute and Collaborators at INOVIO, .
The Wistar InstituteDecember 15, 2020 GMT
PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) A team of scientists from The Wistar Institute, INOVIO, AstraZeneca, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and Indiana University has received a $37.6 million award over two years from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) for rapid preclinical development and translational studies of DNA-encoded monoclonal antibodies (DMAbs) as countermeasures for COVID-19.
Credit: The Wistar Institute
PHILADELPHIA (Dec. 15, 2020) A team of scientists from The Wistar Institute, INOVIO, AstraZeneca, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and Indiana University has received a $37.6 million award over two years from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) for rapid preclinical development and translational studies of DNA-encoded monoclonal antibodies (DMAbs) as countermeasures for COVID-19.
DMAbs, unlike conventional therapeutic antibodies, are administered as genetic blueprints that instruct the patient s body to build its own highly specific antibodies against pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses, and as immunotherapeutics for cancer. Conceptually DMAbs have advantages over traditional monoclonal antibodies in scale-up and delivery, which would rapidly benefit large populations.