Andrés García & Nael McCarty Awarded CFF Grant
Andrés García & Nael McCarty awarded CFF grant titled "Bacteriophage-particles to Treate CF Infections."
Bacterial infection, including by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, is the main causative agent of morbidity and mortality in CF patients. For the treatment of CF-associated infections, antibiotics represent the standard approach. However, the efficacy of antibiotics is severely limited by dosing and development of multi-drug resistance, and many of the current antibiotics are ineffective in eradicating the bacteria once chronic infection is established. Therefore, there is a significant and urgent need for the development of new strategies that can deliver anti-microbials in a targeted fashion to eradicate bacterial infections in the CF lung. One approach is to use viruses that kill bacteria, “bacteriophages,” to target the bacteria without harming the host.
The objective of this two-year project is to engineer biodegradable polymeric microparticles delivering active bacteriophages to reduce CF-associated infections. Their hypothesis is that phage-presenting microparticles will be efficiently delivered to the infected airway where the phages will infect and kill bacteria to eradicate the infection. This new CFF grant builds upon progress that was made possible by seed funding from the Pediatric Research Alliance, from the Pediatric Technology Center and the Center for CF and Airways Disease Research.