Novel class of antibiotic found to be effective against ‘superbug’ MRSA

Epidermicin NI01 – an antibiotic compound developed by University of Plymouth spinout company Amprologix – has been shown to be as effective at removing Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) as the current standard of care.

An experimental and robust skin MRSA infection model was used to determine the results which suggest a positive view in favour of further pre-clinical development. In particular, the research team plans to explore if Epidermicin NI01 can be used in gel-type therapies that can be applied directly to the skin.

Treating the skin infections caused by MRSA in this manner could prevent the need for prolonged courses of current antibiotics sometimes requiring deliver intravenously.

“At the moment, there are antibiotics that can be used to treat skin infections caused by MRSA and other Staphylococcus strains, but these can come with a number of unpleasant side effects. There is also increased resistance to these treatments in many bacteria, meaning that therapies can fail,” said Professor Mathew Upton, Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of Plymouth and leads the Antibiotic Resistant Pathogens Research Group at the university. He is also Chief Scientific Officer at Amprologix.

“Our intention would be to continue to use these standard treatments for the more serious MRSA/Staphylococcus infections, like those in the bloodstream, but to develop other ways of treating more superficial infections, for example [those] on the skin. The results we have achieved so far in our tests have been very encouraging.

“Epidermicin NI01 has the potential to be an effective treatment in this setting, and we now plan to scale up our work and get to a position where we can commence human clinical trials,” he concluded.

Amprologix was launched in 2018 to commercialise Upton’s research and, through a partnership with the University’s commercialisation partner Frontier IP, has pioneered a drug discovery programme focused on identifying the next generation of antibiotics.

Based in the University’s Derriford Research Facility, located on Plymouth Science Park, its work combines laboratory testing with machine learning technologies to accelerate research and development to improve antibiotic properties.