TRIESENBERG, LIECHTENSTEIN-- March 02, 2023 -- Severe wound infections increasingly prove to be a serious medical challenge. Complications particularly arise from the high number of infections caused by resistant or multi-resistant pathogens.

“Infections with resistant bacteria remain the greatest threat to human health. Recently, the United Nations pointed out that in 2019 alone, almost five million deaths worldwide were caused by resistant pathogens”, says Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Volkhard A. J. Kempf, Director of the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hospital Hygiene at University Hospital of Goethe University Frankfurt.

Acinetobacter baumannii is one of these pathogens. Its peculiarity: it is often observed in connection with infections in patients from war zones, recently in soldiers from the war in Ukraine. Infections with one of the continuously increasing multi-resistant A.baumannii strains can now often only be addressed with last resort antibiotics or, at worst, are untreatable.

“Severe wound infections usually have to be treated surgically in several consecutive procedures. As bacteria are also always present in neighboring and often non-removable tissue, an innovative approach of local treatment with Artilysin® is a promising future strategy”, explains Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Ingo Marzi, Director of Trauma, Hand and Reconstructive Surgery Clinic at the University Hospital of Goethe University Frankfurt.

The Artilysin® technology comprises antibacterial molecules specifically designed by the Lysando team from flexibly combinable modules.

Lysando is collaborating with the University Hospital Frankfurt am Main as part of the KMU-innovativ-22 funding initiative of the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research). In close cooperation with Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Kempf and Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Marzi, the development of Artilysin® prototypes has been advanced. The specifically developed molecules exhibit strong antibacterial activity against clinical A.baumannii strains, particularly against multi-resistant and other gram-negative germs.

These results provide a promising basis for new therapeutic approaches in the fight against these problematic pathogens.