Abstract

AbTids - A New Class of Antimicrobials

Sanjiban K Banerjee, Director, AbGenics lifesciences Pvt Ltd

Antibiotic resistance kills an estimated 700,000 people each year worldwide with a steady increase each year. Caused primarily by a group now classified as ESKAPE pathogens, they include dangerous bacteria like carbapenem resistant Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas and methicillin/vancomycin resistant Staphylococcus with newer more dangerous forms reported regularly. AbGenics is developing a new class of antibiotics called AbTids® to target these bacteria where antimicrobial peptides are being combined with pathogen specific heavy chain antibodies derived from camels by genetic engineering techniques. Fusing the peptides with much larger antibodies with a cleavable linker that gets activated at the site of action reduces the toxic effects of  peptides considerably and can be economically produced by bacterial production systems. Resistance to AbTids will be difficult to develop as bacterial killing is achieved by physical lysis from outside and not by blocking some mutatable intracellular target. Potential applications will be in the area of control of drug resistance bacteria for topical applications like diabetic necropathy, burns and respiratory infections as well as those transmitted through implants and catheters. These molecules will be developed further and used for systemic bacterial infections as well.