Updated COVID vaccine 71% effective against hospitalization for older adults – University of Minnesota Twin Cities

The Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Foundation announced today that it's investing up to $5 million in Ohio-based Clarametyx Biosciences to develop a drug that could help CF patients clear difficult-to-treat bacterial infections.

The money will support development of CMTX-101, a monoclonal antibody that has shown the ability to disrupt biofilm formation across several species of bacteria, including the species that tend to cause chronic infection in CF patients, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Burkholderia cepacia, and nontuberculosis mycobacteria.

CF patients with chronic P aeruginosa infections are currently being enrolled in a phase 1b/2a clinical trial that will investigate the safety and tolerability of CTXM-101 in combination with inhaled tobramycin.

Because of the mucus that builds up in their lungs, CF patients are prone to bacterial infections that can exacerbate their condition. Most of those infections involve bacteria that form biofilmscommunities of microbes that can grow on human tissue, medical devices, and prosthetic joints and form a protective layer around the bacteria, shielding them from the immune system and antibiotics.

CTXM-101 is designed to collapse biofilms by targeting a region of proteins that help stabilize and maintain biofilm integrity. Without the protection of the biofilm, the bacteria causing the infection become more susceptible to antibiotics. CF Foundation officials say the approach may also reduce the inflammation that results from chronic infections in CF patients.

"We hope that this potential therapy will ultimately help people with CF clear many different types of difficult-to-treat infections," JP Clancy, MD, senior vice president of clinical research at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, said in a press release. "This could provide a crucial new tool that could be used alongside traditional antibiotics in the fight against antimicrobial resistance."

CTXM-101 is among the antibacterial candidates that have received pre-clinical funding from CARB-X (the Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator).

This could provide a crucial new tool that could be used alongside traditional antibiotics in the fight against antimicrobial resistance.

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Updated COVID vaccine 71% effective against hospitalization for older adults - University of Minnesota Twin Cities