Bacteriophage Therapy Against Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria Causing Serious Wound Infections
Abstract
This project aligns directly with the current FY17 PRMRP topic area antimicrobial resistance. The research focuses on development and preclinical investigation of bacteriophages as novel antimicrobial agents for treatment and prevention of infections caused by multidrug resistant bacteria (MDRB). MDRB cause life-threating infections involving wounds, penetrating abdominal injuries, hospital acquired pneumonia, and sepsis. These infections are important global public health diseases that impact severely on our wounded war-fighters, veterans, and their hospitalized family members. The resulting shortage of safe and effective antibiotics poses a great challenge to the care of wounded military personnel, as well as civilians. Our objective in this study will be to develop a transformational strategy beyond the next logical steps of using bacteriophages for treatment and prevention of MDRB infections. Bacteriophages are emerging experimentally and clinically as important antimicrobial agents in treatment of refractory and potentially lethal MDRB infections Recent developments in the field have suggested that in addition to being potent antibacterial agents, additional efficacy can be obtained by utilization of phages that are able to modulate the severity of bacterial infections by selecting for bacterial mutants that are reduced in virulence or that have increased susceptibility to antibiotics. Among the most prevalent and lethal MDRB are Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), carbapenemase producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (KPC), Acinetobacterbaumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We will study KPC as a model MDRB.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1103065
Entities
People
- Thomas Walsh
Organizations
- Weill Cornell Medicine