A drug to help cystic fibrosis patients and others who suffer chronic bacterial infections is a step closer to reality after a major breakthrough at the University of Wollongong.
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Dr Mike Kelso, from the School of Chemistry and Centre for Medicinal Chemistry, has developed a new approach to treating antibiotic-resistant infections in collaboration with researchers from the University of NSW.
Dr Kelso said the team was in talks with two French pharmaceutical companies to commercialise the technology and he believed a drug could be just five years away.
"There's certain types of bacterial infections we call chronic infections - ones that don't go away easily, that don't respond well to antibiotic therapies - and these infections are a big problem," he said.
"The aim of our research is to alleviate the suffering of people who have long-term infections like this, that cause their quality of life to suffer and in some cases, can ultimately cause death."
Renal and middle-ear infections and infections in "in-dwelling" medical devices, such as catheters were some of the chronic infections set to benefit from the new technology.
"One of the chronic infections we're particularly interested in is lung infections in people with cystic fibrosis," Dr Kelso said.
"Cystic fibrosis patients are constantly in hospital because their lungs fill up with fluid, which creates an environment for bacteria to grow, so throughout their life, they take lots of antibiotics.
"Over time, the bacteria grows resistant to these treatments and patients may develop biofilm infections in their lungs, which can ultimately be responsible for respiratory failure and death."
Dr Kelso said the National Health and Medical Research Council had funded the development of the technology, known as Trojan Horse drugs.
"Biofilms occur when bacteria grows together in a community and attaches to some surface, like the inside of the lung, and forms colonies which secrete this polymer matrix to create a fortress.
"This fortress is protected from immune cells of the body and antibiotics which can't penetrate through these matrices to access the bacteria and kill them. We're addressing that by tricking the bacteria into dispersing out of that fortress environment so they become more susceptible to antibiotic treatments and the immune system of the person with the infection."
Dr Kelso said the technology could also eventually be applied to the superbugs that plague hospitals.
