Endolytix Technology, Inc is developing a new therapeutic approach that addresses antibiotic resistance in nontuberculous mycobacterial infections (NTMs) such as the MAC complex and M. abscessus, as well as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The prevalence of diagnosed NTM infections in the US alone is projected at over 150,000 cases with the incidence of new infections increasing by 8.2% annually, whereas according to the World Health Organization, 10 million people per year become ill with TB and 1.5 million die.
According to the CDC:
Antibiotic resistance—the ability of germs to defeat the drugs designed to kill them—is one of the greatest global public health challenges of our time.
For a history of antibiotic resistance go here.
NTMs are intrinsically resistant to many front line antibiotics thus requiring treatments of stronger antibiotics for a longer time period. Mycobacteria are capable of targeting and surviving treatment inside macrophages thus allowing for a high re-occurrence of disease even after extensive courses of antibiotics. Targeting these intracellular NTM is a unique challenge not addressed by current therapies.
Endolytix provides options for patients who have few to none.
Endolytix is developing novel therapeutics to address the most resistant of antibiotic infections that are difficult to access, treat, and patient tolerance for current therapies are low. The lack of susceptibility to antibiotics is in part due to the very thick and complicated cell envelope that prevents effective chemical intervention by blocking access of many drugs from entering mycobacteria. Their defenses go beyond their inhibitory cell envelope but are further reenforced by hiding in macrophage cells designed to kill invading bacteria but are instead usurped into becoming a growth reservoir, thus further making drug access even more challenging.
Endolytix therapies are very effective at killing pathogenic NTM mycobacteria both inside and outside of macrophages. The killing ability inside of macrophages is the result of building targeted drug delivery vehicles for our bactericidal payloads.