PasNas drug discovery platform

The inLab FIB collaborates with the company ABAC Therapeutics in the development of its own platform for drug discovery to identify new antibiotics aimed at fighting multi-resistant bacteria.

The dramatic increase in multiresistant gram-negative infections (MDRs) is of particular concern and poses a serious clinical burden in terms of prevalence, mortality, and healthcare costs.

Incremental improvements to existing broad-spectrum antibiotics are no longer able to keep up with the evolution of resistance.

Finding new antibacterials is not easy since the molecular mechanism of action of the latest broad-spectrum antibacterials is 40 years old, despite the enormous efforts made in pharmacy to find new agents.

ABAC Therapeutics is investigating to find therapeutic solutions for patients infected with bacterial pathogens highly resistant to antibiotics and leaving affected patients with few (or no) treatment options.

Heads of national health services, professional infectious disease organizations and infectious disease experts warn that we are facing a return to a pre-antibiotic era and infections with these "superbugs" are increasing in both severity and frequency, and new drugs are now needed to treat them.

Antibiotics specific to particular pathogens represent an innovative approach to developing anti-infective drugs and have the potential to lead to an entirely new generation of antibiotics.

The search for products with specific activity for each pathogen, together with the PasNas discovery platform, offers us a new paradigm to treat infections, based on precision antibacterial agents.

ABAC Therapeutics is investigating a new line that makes it possible to identify compounds with specific activity with new mechanisms of action, respectful of the human bacterial flora and at the same time minimizing the selection of resistant strains.

Poster that summarizes the project: