NOVEL THERAPEUTIC APPROACHES FOR MICROBIAL INFECTIONS : THE CASE OF Pseudomonas Aeruginosa

Author (s) : D.Jeevithra , T.Devi & Dr,S.Anbumalar, S.Kalaivani

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Abstract :
Antivirulence drugs and antibiotic adjuvants could complement classic antibiotic therapies in the fight against MDR pathogenic bacteria. The ESKAPE Gram-negative pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa causes severe antibiotic-resistant infections in lungs, bladder, cornea and wounds and lethal chronic lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients. Besides being intrinsically resistant to many antibiotics, it is very prone to acquire new resistances and forms hard to treat biofilms. In fact, P. aeruginosa is included in the WHO priority list of pathogens for which new therapies are urgently needed and has become a major model organism for studies focused on the identification of antivirulence agents and antibiotic adjuvants. This talk will retrace the pre-clinical research about novel therapeutic approaches against P. aeruginosa carried out by our group along almost one decade: from the development of target-oriented screening systems to the discovery of antivirulence activities in old drugs, through their validation against clinical strains, up to the discovery of additional and unpredicted antibiotic adjuvant activities. By giving solid examples of bottlenecks and successes, this excursus will hopefully help understand why, despites the efforts of the scientific community, antivirulence drug discovery is still at the pre-clinical stage.

Keywords : pathogenic bacteria, biofilms, P. aeruginosa, antivirulence

Conference Date : 30/08/2019

Pages : 345

Paper ID : 19336