Design of targeted intravesical therapies for treating recurrent urinary tract infections

The National Institute for Health Research in 2016 reported that UTIs are among the most common types of infections within excess of 92 million people affected worldwide. UTIs are a significant cause of mortality, especially amongst the elderly population, with UTI related symptoms accounting for between 1-3% of all primary care consultations and being the main reason for 13.7% of community antibiotic prescriptions. The treatment costs of UTIs place a significant burden on the NHS. The current antibiotic treatments are mostly systemic in nature which exposes the whole body to the drug. This has contributed to the recently reported 6% of drug-resistance in UTI cases. This project will aim to develop and evaluate a new nanoparticle-based localised treatment that can directly administer into the bladder, the target organ.