Peptide agent against multi-resistant bacteria

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is globally rising over the last decades, partly due to over- or misuse of antibiotics. In 2019, over 3 million deaths were associated with AMR globally. Thereby, the Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii were within the top six pathogens causing death. Around 8% of patients infected with the aforementioned, resistant pathogens will not survive.

The new peptide-based antimicrobial agent based on an optimized form of the scorpion fish protein BPI (scoBPI) shows very high anti-inflammatory potency towards the endotoxic activity of lipopolysaccharides and a bactericidal activity at nanomolar concentrations against carbapenem-resistant P. aeruginosa, E. coli and A. baumannii. Since the activity of the optimized scoBPI is mediated via membrane perturbation, common resistance mechanisms mediated by e.g. porin loss, efflux pumps and antibiotic-binding or -deactivating proteins do not affect the activity of the antimicrobial peptide.