New funding to RISE for antibiotic research

Researchers from RISE in Södertälje have received two grants of SEK 2.3 and SEK 3 million, respectively, for their participation in two different consortia within JPIAMR-ACTION "Disrupting drug resistance using innovative design" to research new and better antibiotics. They will do this together with leading international researchers from Europe.

RISE researchers involved in two different projects

With the help of two grants, RISE will test appropriate methods of preparation for in vivo research before implementing them in the clinic. RISE will develop and execute preclinical safety testing in rodents, examine the exposure in vivo, and evaluate kinetic profiles.

One project, "MURYXIN", will be RISE's responsibility for safety studies of new variants of polymyxin-type antibiotics. These substances are currently used as antibiotics of last resort to treat infections with multidrug-resistant bacteria. It is hoped that the new variants will be effective and possibly less toxic than the polymyxin B and colistin currently used.

– We have previously been part of a long-term research collaboration to develop polymyxin-type antibiotics. There were some challenges, exactly the kind of problems that us researchers are motivated to solve, says Matilda Bäckberg, head of unit and researcher at RISE. It feels inspiring to develop new drug candidates with maintained effect but with a better safety profile than Polymyxin B.

The second project is called "APRINHA" and its main objective is to develop five distinct inhalation formulations of the new antibiotic apramycin and evaluate their pharmacokinetics, safety and efficacy in Acinetobacter baumannii in vitro and in animal infection models.

– Our task is to develop formulations that will be tested for inhalation, both a nebulized solution and dry formulated variants of the same substance, says Lina Nyström, researcher at RISE. If the development is successful, we will be able to test the formulations in rodents, measure the exposure and produce the kinetic profile for each formulation. We will collaborate with Inhalation Sciences in this mission.

Established partners and new recruitment

With the contribution from JPIAMR, the researchers from RISE become part of a larger international network, which includes other established partners with specialist expertise, who will jointly develop new antibiotics against resistant bacteria.

– As before, within IMI Enable and Enable 2, when it comes to preclinical research and studying and developing antibacterial drug candidates, RISE forms a strong team together with cutting-edge expertise from Uppsala University and SSI in Denmark, says Matilda Bäckberg.

The two projects run over three years and will require a lot of human resources in the form of researchers, chemists and analysts.