Asset Publisher

Research & Innovation Programmes
Antimicrobial Resistance

New antibacterial agents against 'Acinetobacter baumannii'

Search for new target proteins and use of antibacterial or inhibitory peptides against resistance mechanisms in 'Acinetobacter baumannii'

Photo: Janice Carr (Source: CDC library)
Duration
01/01/2018 - 31/12/2020
Coordinator
Jordi Vila
Funded by
Mineco, Feder, ISCIII

At present a large proportion of available antibiotics are not suitable for the treatment of multiresistant pathogens. Sometimes the possibilities of choice are reduced to a single drug, as is the case of colistin for A. baumannii, in addition the new antibiotics are not active against this microorganism. In a recent document, the WHO positions A.baumannii at the top of the list of multiresistant microorganisms for which further research is required to find new antibacterial agents.

Objective

The main objective of this project is the design of new antibacterial agents against A. baumannii through several approaches:

1. Characterization of the role of active efflux systems (AESs) as well as other outer membrane proteins and double component systems in the virulence and resistance to antibiotics in A. baumannii, in order to search for potential target proteins;

2. Study of the capacity of blocking AESs by cyclic peptides;

3. We have a peptide with good antibacterial activity and its stability is being studied and its activity in vivo is also being investigated using a model of sepsis. The peptide will be optimized by synthesizing its enantiomer.

4. We have synthetized a peptide-oligonucleotide hybrid and in this project we will investigate its bactericidal capacity both in vitro and in vivo.

Total funding

111,300 €

Our Team

Principal Investigator

  • Jordi Vila Estape
    Jordi Vila Estape

Other projects

See Past Projects

COMBACTE

Combating Bacterial Resistance In Europe

GAMA

Development of Novel Gastrointestinal Biomarkers for Use in HIV Incidence Determination in a Sub-Saharan African Setting

COMBACTE-CARE

Combatting Bacterial Resistance in Europe - Carbapenem Resistance

MAMAH

Improving Maternal and Infant Health by reducing malaria risks in African women: evaluation of the safety and efficacy of dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine for intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in HIV-infected pregnant women

INTE-AFRICA

Integrating and decentralizing diabetes and hypertension services in Africa

ICARIA

Improving Care through Azithromycin Research for Infants in Africa

PreFIT

Predicting the Future: Incipient Tuberculosis

ANTICOV

Large Clinical Trial in Africa on the Treatment of Mild Cases of COVID-19

Stool4TB

Evaluating a new stool based qPCR for diagnosis of tuberculosis in children and people living with HIV

TB-RECONNECT

Reconnecting Transmission to Global Tuberculosis Control by Mapping Pathogen Transmission Events to Host Infection Status

SToolNIH

Quantifiable stool-based TB PCR to Improve Diagnostics and Treatment Monitoring

END-VOC

ENDing COVID-19 Variants Of concern through Cohort studies (END-VOC)

TwinAir

Digital Twins Enabled Indoor Air Quality Management for Healthy Living

ENDÈMIC

Community knowledge generation through scientific culture, urban ecology and art

EpiGen

Building Scalable Pathogen Genomic Epidemiology in Ethiopia

Hepatitis C Free Baleares

Eliminating hepatitis C on the Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza): a study in governmental and non-governmental addiction service centres, a mobile methadone unit and a prison to test and link people who use drugs to HCV care.

FLAVOBAC

Nuevas moléculas de oro coordinadas con flavonoides contra bacterias patógenas multirresistentes prioritarias