Preclinical development of novel DNA-based antimicrobial agents

"Procarta Biosystems is an antibiotic drug discovery and development organisation with a unique platform that can identify new targets for antibiotics as well as discovering new drugs to kill even the most resistant bacteria.

Procarta has discovered a new type of antimicrobial that kills bacteria by blocking their gene expression through a novel mechanism. These are short fragments of DNA that invade the bacterial cells to treat serious infections such as sepsis, complicated urinary tract infection and complicated intra-abdominal infection with the lead molecule, PRO-202, progressing to preclinical development. These infections are extremely hard to treat, particularly with the rise of resistance.

The company is developing PRO-202 as a antimicrobial to treat infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria, which in some cases are untreatable with currently available agents. Intended uses are to both treat acute infections, such as sepsis, and also to improve health by modifying the gut microbiome, by removing bacteria associated with disease. Successful completion of the project will lead to a potential new medicine ready for testing in man, which is the next step in creating a drug.

By changing the sequence of the DNA fragment in our potential medicines we can selectively and specifically target different bacteria, meaning that the first demonstration of the technology will validate our platform and may lead to multiple new antibiotics."