{"id":12587,"date":"2024-09-10T09:50:48","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T09:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=12587"},"modified":"2024-09-10T09:50:48","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T09:50:48","slug":"crispr-enhanced-viruses-are-being-deployed-against-utis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=12587","title":{"rendered":"Crispr-Enhanced Viruses Are Being Deployed Against UTIs"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Locus\u2019s therapy is actually a cocktail of six phages. The company used artificial intelligence<\/a> to predict a combination that would be effective against E. coli<\/em>. Three of the phages are \u201clytic,\u201d meaning work by infecting E. coli<\/em> cells and causing them to burst open. The other three are engineered to contain Crispr to enhance their effectiveness. Once inside their target cells, these phages use the Crispr system to home in on a crucial site in the E. coli<\/em> genome and start degrading the bacteria\u2019s DNA.<\/p>\n

Some phages are really good at getting into bacterial cells but not good at killing them. \u201cThat\u2019s where gene editing comes in,\u201d explains Paul Garofolo, CEO of Locus. He says the therapy is meant to \u201creach into the human body and remove a targeted bacterial species without touching anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a Phase 2 trial, 16 women received a three-day course of the phage cocktail, along with Bactrim, a commonly prescribed antibiotic for UTIs. Within four hours of the first treatment, levels of E. coli<\/em> in the urine rapidly declined, and were maintained through the end of the 10-day study period. By that time, UTI symptoms in all of the participants had cleared up, and levels of E. coli<\/em> were low enough in 14 out of 16 women that they were considered cured.<\/p>\n

The findings were reported August 9 in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases<\/em><\/a>. The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, is co-developing the therapy.<\/p>\n

UTIs are incredibly common, and roughly half of women will have a UTI in their lifetime. More than 80 percent of infections are caused by E. coli<\/em>, and in a 2022 report<\/a>, the World Health Organization found<\/a> that one in five UTI infections caused by E. coli<\/em> showed reduced susceptibility to standard antibiotics like ampicillin, co-trimoxazole, and fluoroquinolones.<\/p>\n

While phage therapy is common in the Republic of Georgia and Poland, it is not licensed in the US. However, it is used experimentally in certain cases with permission from the US Food and Drug Administration. A major challenge with commercializing phage therapy is that it\u2019s often personalized to individual patients and thus difficult to scale. Finding the right phage for treatment can take time, and then batches of phages need to be grown and purified. But using a fixed cocktail like Locus\u2019s would mean the therapy could be more easily scaled.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s another potential benefit. \u201cThe Crispr-enhanced phages allow for degradation of the bacterial genome and would bypass several mechanisms by which bacteria can become resistant to phage,\u201d says Saima Aslam, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, who studies phages but is not involved in the development of the Locus therapy. \u201cTheoretically, this may prevent regrowth of phage-resistant bacteria and thus lead to more effective treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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