Antimicrobial Compositions and Combination Therapies

Background:

Antibiotic resistance is an urgent and growing health threat.  Pseudomonas aeruginosa is known to cause a variety of infections in both immunocompetent and immunocompromised individuals, but especially the latter.  It utilizes both intrinsic and acquired resistance to counter most antibiotics.  Further, formation of multidrug-tolerant persister cells present a major treatment challenge and are believed to be responsible for relapse and chronic infections.  Identification and development of novel antimicrobial agents and strategies able to target such cells is an emerging and critical need.

The jointly owned (University at Buffalo and Cleveland State University) invention provides compositions and methods that have demonstrated synergistic antimicrobial effects on otherwise drug-resistant strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, including against persister cells (see figure below involving a metallo-ß-lactamase strain).

Advantages:

• Effective against drug resistant strains
• Synergistic with traditional antimicrobial agents
• Effective against persister cells

Applications:

• Infectious Disease

Intellectual Property Summary:

U.S. Provisional Patent Application 63/420,875 filed October 31, 2022.

Stage of Development:

In vitro.

Licensing Status:

Available for licensing or collaboration.

Additional Information:

No publications to date.