Nasal Gel To Combat ‘Superbug’ MRSA

Destiny Pharma, a privately owned biotechnology company in Brighton, UK, is working on the development of a new drug, XF-73, which when placed as a gel in the nose helps combat the ‘hospital superbug’ MRSA.

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) bacteria resists antibiotics and claims around 5,000 hospital patients each year. Unlike most anti-MRSA drugs which prevent the growth and breeding of the bacterium, the new experimental drug XF-73 is developed to kill the microbes.

The drug is designed to lethally interact with the bacteria's cell membrane, thus, giving the bugs a lesser opportunity to develop pathways to escape its effect.

The drug has successfully completed the initial Phase I clinical trials. Also, despite recurrent exposure (56 times) to the drug, the MRSA bacteria did not develop resistance.

"Results suggest that XF-73's remote resistance profile may allow widespread MRSA decolonisation in hospitals to support national initiatives for effective infection control," the company reported.

The findings of the trial were presented to the European Congress on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Barcelona last month.

About MRSA

Discovered in 1961 in the UK, MRSA is now universally termed as a “superbug”. Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterial infection belonging to the Staphylococcaceae family, comprises of 31 species. While most species are completely harmless and reside normally on the skin and mucous membranes of humans the recently evolving MRSA strains are difficult to treat because of their resistance to a chain of antibiotics. Only surgical drainage or a picky class of antibiotics is helpful in its treatment.

A communicable infection that often transmits through touch, it particularly infects the area around the buttocks and the genitals. It causes boils and other skin and soft-tissue infections