NIH to Evaluate Iclaprim Activity against Listeria
Motif Bio plc (AIM/Nasdaq: MTFB), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company specialising in developing novel antibiotics, today announced that the Company will be utilising NIAID's1 suite of preclinical services through JMI Laboratories to evaluate iclaprim against Listeria monocytogenes, a Gram-positive bacteria causing food-borne, life-threatening infections. The study, to be funded by NIAID, follows earlier in vitro testing in which iclaprim was ≥32-fold more potent than standard-of-care ampicillin and demonstrated consistent extracellular as well as intracellular activity against L. monocytogenes2.
Listeriosis is a rare but serious infection usually caused by eating food, such as cheese and other dairy products, deli meat and produce that has been contaminated with L. monocytogenes. An estimated 1,600 people in the U.S. get listeriosis each year, and the infection is most likely to sicken pregnant women and their newborns, adults aged 65 or older, and people with weakened immune systems. The disease can lead to septicaemia or meningitis, and about 260 people in the U.S. die from listeriosis annually. If treatment is required, patients are generally given IV antibiotics - ampicillin alone or in conjunction with another antibiotic.
David Huang, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Medical Officer of Motif Bio, said: "Listeriosis is a potentially life-threatening infection for which more effective treatment options are needed. If the results of this study confirm that iclaprim has potent activity against L. monocytogenes, we believe that iclaprim could be a potentially useful treatment option and would warrant further study."
- NIAID: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
- Huang, D. Letter to the Editor: Extracellular and intracellular activity of iclaprim against Listeria monocytogenes. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, 53 (2019) 106-107.