World antibiotic awareness week

World antibiotic awareness week


“Antimicrobial resistance is a real and current threat” – this was the warning we heard from David Roblin of Summit Therapeutics in our recent interview for our Celebrating UK Bioscience series. Antimicrobial resistance affects every nation on earth, and it’s getting worse. Much like the problem of climate change, the effects have been growing steadily and the problem does not respect boundaries. Infections arising from antimicrobial resistant microbes poses one of the greatest threats to modern medicine. 


The current state of affairs 


Antibiotics have a few different modes of action – some work by acting on the wall of a bacterial cell, others work by preventing the cell from being able to replicate its DNA. Under ideal conditions, bacterial cells can replicate themselves as quickly as every 20 minutes. This means that you can watch a population of bacteria evolve in real time – they adapt rapidly to their surroundings. 


Exposing bacteria to an antimicrobial substance can kill lots of the cells, but if one cell has developed the ability to withstand the drug, they will survive. These changes happen slowly over time, but lead to situations where some bugs can be resistant to multiple drugs. In these cases, there are some drugs which can be used as a “last line of defence”, such as colistin and carbapenems. 


An ECDC study published this month stated that 33,000 people die every year due to antimicrobial-resistant infections in the EU and EEA. This work showed that the burden caused by these diseases has increased since 2007, and is equal to influenza, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis combined. Worryingly, the report also stated that 39% of the burden is caused by infections which show resistance to the last-line drugs mentioned above. New antimicrobials are need now more than ever. 


UK companies working in the AMR space


During our Celebrating UK Bioscience series, we spoke to BIA members Matoke Pharma, Destiny Pharma and Summit Therapeutics. These UK companies are tackling the issue of antimicrobial resistance head-on, by producing new and novel antimicrobial substance that address the issue in a number of ways. 

Summit Therapeutics are developing drugs to treat drug-resistant gonorrhoea, using their Discuva platform to identify drug candidates. The World Health Organisation estimates that there are 78 million new cases of gonorrhoea globally per year – and the bug is rapidly developing resistance to the antibiotics most commonly used to treat it. 


Matoke Pharma are harnessing the power of reactive oxygen to treat post-surgical infections. Reactive oxygen is a natural defence mechanism of cells, and Matoke exploit this natural phenomenon to treat resistant infections. Post-surgical infections with resistant bugs are common since the skin is the body’s main line of defence against the outside world along with the mucous membranes. Breaking this barrier during surgical procedures often results in dangerous infections – and consistent treatment with antibiotics breeds more resistant bugs. 


Destiny Pharma’s lead drug is the XF series, which is intended for use to combat methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). About a third of the population carry S. aureus in their noses, as a harmless part of their own microbiome. If the immune system is weakened through disease or compromised due to surgery, S. aureus can cause infections, and when it becomes resistant to methicillin, an antibiotic, these infections can be very serious. The XF drug series from Destiny Pharma seeks to tackle this problem by killing this bacteria in the nose before they have a chance to cause nasty infections. 

You can read more of our work on antimicrobial resistance by checking out our explainer document here. Be sure to follow along on Twitter for more information on World Antibiotic Awareness Week by following @BIA_UK and checking out #WAAW18

More within

Author

Joanne Duffy

Joanne Duffy

Communications Executive, BIA