Antibiotic resistance represents a global threat that leads to high morbidity and mortality. There is an urgent need for new strategies to combat persistent and resistant bacteria.
At the IDWeek 2023 infectious disease conference, Rachelle Koch, a medical student from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, presented the work done in David Greenberg’s Lab on a new strategy to tackle Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections using D-peptide-conjugated phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (D-PPMOs). P. aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen showing a multidrug-resistance (MDR) pattern that is at the root of significant morbidity and mortality, especially in immunocompromised patients with severe chronic lung diseases such as cystic fibrosis.
Researchers from Hokkaido University (Japan) and colleagues have identified 2-thiouridine (s2U) as a broad-spectrum antiviral ribonucleoside analogue, by phenotypic screening of a library of 753 nucleoside analogues for antiviral effects. s2U showed antiviral activity against several ssRNA+ viruses, including DENV, SARS-CoV-2 and its variants of concern.
During the IDWeek conference held in Boston earlier this month, presentations on Climate Change were spread throughout the program. Some talks were on the direct effects of weather on infectious agents. Others discussed what healthcare workers could do to mitigate the effects of climate change, from antibiotic stewardship to decarbonization of day to day operations.
A team at the University of Geneva has developed prodrugs of antimicrobial agents and particularly conjugates comprising antimicrobial agents covalently bound to a tocopheryl or tocotrienyl group through a linker with micelle formation ability and improved stability.
At the 30th Annual Congress of the European Society for Gene and Cell Therapy in Brussels this week, researchers presented both preclinical and clinical strategies for applying gene therapy to a functional HIV cure. At a Wednesday session on Infectious Diseases & Vaccines, Alessio Nahmad, of Tabby Therapeutics Ltd., described using B cells edited to express broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) 3BNC117 to deliver high titers of antibodies in mice.
Codagenix Inc. announced that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), through the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command and the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity, has awarded the company $5.88 million to advance the development of its Codavax-Denv, a tetravalent live attenuated dengue vaccine program.