Our Science
At Lxbio Pharmaceuticals, we are committed to discover biopharmaceutical solutions that aim to transform healthcare and improve patient lives.
Our portfolio encompasses a range of innovative therapies developed through advanced biotechnological processes.
Bacteriophages are viruses that can lyse the bacteria they infect. Bacteriophages can be used alone or in combination with other antimicrobials to improve their efficacy. (1)
The technology involves naturally occurring and genetically modified phages combine in a cocktail of lytic bacteriophages to specifically target the bacteria causing the infections, means that each phage has only a specific host target.
The technology combines bacteriophages mixed as cocktails to broaden their properties resulting in a collectively greater antibacterial spectrum of activity.
In diabetic foot infection, the antibiotic concentrations are many times sub-therapeutic due to a deficient vascularization. Topical treatment has the advantages of avoiding systemic adverse effects, providing increased target site concentration, and allowing the use of agents not available for systemic therapy.
Our Science
Phage therapy is an alternative to antibiotics in the age of multi-drug resistance.
Phages infect and kill bacteria at the site of infection.
A phage will kill a bacterium only if it matches the specific strain.
Bacteria
Staphylococcus
aureus
Bacteria
Pseudomonas
aeruginosa
Bacteria
Acinetobacter
baumannii
What is Phage Therapy?
Phages are viruses that consist of a genome contained within a protein coat that selectively target and kill bacteria (2) .
They target the dangerous microbes without harming human cells, due to how specific they are.
They are the most common biological entities in nature and have been shown to effectively fight and destroy multi-drug resistant bacteria. Namely, when all antibiotics fail, phages still succeed in killing the bacteria and may save a life from an infection.
They are made of proteins that encapsulate a DNA or RNA genome with as few as 4 genes and as many as hundreds, in the top section.
Most phages can be classified as being lytic or temperate. Lytic phages kill a very high proportion of bacterial cells they infect and therefore are suitable for therapeutic consideration.
In order to use phages therapeutically, they should (3):
2
Kill the bacterial
host efficiently
3
Be fully characterized
to exclude side effects
1
Preferably be lytic
Phage therapy can be used successfully, by various routes of administration, to treat a wide range of infections, including chronic wounds, without notable adverse effects.
Phages act independent of antibiotic resistance and some phages are also able to degrade biofilms, facilitating clearance of biofilm-mediated chronic infection.
Phages are Bacteria’s Natural Predator
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) or multi-drug resistance
It is one of the biggest threats to global public health and food security today.
AMR occurs when viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites do not respond to antimicrobial treatments in humans and animals, thus allowing the survival of the microorganism within the host.
AMR has significant
economic costs.
US$ 1 trillion
additional healthcare costs by 2050
AMR was directly
responsible for
1.27 million
global deaths in 2019
It can affect anyone, of any age, in any country.
The main reasons for the rise of AMR include misuse and over use of antibiotics in the food industry, animal husbandry, and medicine.
Moreover, some pathogens are intrinsically antibiotic resistant and challenging to treat with currently available agents.
Some bacteria in the human
body are drug resistant
Antibiotics kill bacteria, but
not those resistant to drugs
Resistant bacteria then
have space to multiply
Bacteria can even transfer
their drug resistance to other bacteria
Reference (6)