AVI BioPharma announces publication of positive antibiotics data

The results are published in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, in a paper authored by AVI research scientists Dr Bruce Geller and Lucas Tilley.

Highlights from the NeuBiotic study include that AVI has developed peptide conjugates that are effective in delivering NeuBiotic compounds directly into bacteria, that NeuBiotics are both specific and effective in blocking the bacterial genetic target, and that targeted bacteria can be eliminated without causing toxicity to human cells.

The study also showed that NeuBiotics can eliminate both E. coli and S. typhimurium infection in cell culture, demonstrating the broad applicability of the NeuBiotic approach.

“Our antisense approach to developing a new class of antibiotics has enormous potential to treat infections caused by emerging strains of antibiotic-resistant, gram-positive bacteria,” said Dr Patrick Iversen, senior vice president of R&D at AVI. “Based on these results, we are now in a strong position to develop NeuBiotics for a variety of microbial infections.”

AVI recently announced that it was issued a US patent providing broad protection for Neugene antisense compounds targeting bacterial cell division and cell cycle genes for the development of this new class of antibiotics.