"Our earlier stage antimicrobial research progresses with non-dilutive support from governmental grants and contracts"
Biodefense
Over the past decade, improving our nation’s defense against bioterrorism has become a greater priority. Antibiotic activity against anthrax and other biowarfare pathogens, with a mechanism that is likely to evade resistance, has commercial, medical and national security value. Preclinical studies show that our defensin-mimetic compounds have activity against a number of biowarfare pathogens, including those that cause anthrax, plague, tularemia, listeria, and others.
Fungal Infections
PolyMedix's defensin-mimetic compounds have demonstrated promising activity against fungal strains that cause human infectious diseases. In preclinical experiments, a number of our compounds have demonstrated antifungal activity. For certain strains of fungi, activity was seen at lower concentrations than that of fluconazole, a currently marketed antifungal agent. In serial passage assays, resistance in fungi did not emerge against the PolyMedix compounds but resistance readily developed against fluconazole. We intend to continue to investigate the potential of our compounds as novel treatments for human fungal infections.
Malaria
Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, which is transmitted to people by infected mosquitoes. As much as half of the world’s population, up to 3 billion people, may be exposed to malaria. The parasites multiply in the liver and infect red blood cells. According to the World Health Organization, the inappropriate use of antimalarial drugs during the past century, including poor management of use, deployment of drugs on a large scale, and use as monotherapies, has contributed to the current situation of unacceptably high levels of resistance. This growing resistance to antimalarial medicines has spread very rapidly, undermining malaria control efforts.
In pre-clinical studies, we have identified various lead compounds that demonstrate antiparasitic activity against the Plasmodium falciparum parasite. P. falciparum accounts for 80% of all human malarial infections and 90% of deaths from such infections. We continue the characterization and optimization of these compounds.
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is a highly contagious disease that affects one-third of the world’s population. Approximately, 1.7 billion people are infected worldwide, including 15 million in the United States. Those infected have a 5-10% lifetime risk of active disease, and immunocomprimised patients have an even higher risk. There are 9 million newly reported infections each year and 3.1 million people die from the disease annually. Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death of women, AIDs patients and the young in the world and there are more deaths from tuberculosis than any other single infectious disease. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the primary infectious agent for tuberculosis and drug resistance has become a paramount issue, accounting for over 50 million infections. The drug-resistant forms of the disease are significantly more difficult to treat, leading to higher mortality rates and escalating costs of care.
PolyMedix's defensin-mimetic compounds have demonstrated encouraging in vitro activity against tuberculosis bacteria, as well as specificity versus mammalian cells.