A very scary picture of a world where antibiotics don’t work anymore was delivered in October by the UK’s chief medical officer.
“The world is facing an antibiotics apocalypse, said Dame Sally Davies, who predicted around 700,000 people a year would die from drug-resistant infections unless major medical advances were made.
SkinBiotherapetics PLC (LON:SBTX) chief executive Cath O’Neil published a study on the potential of skin probiotics as an anti-bacterial when she was working as a senior lecturer at the division of Musculoskeletal and Dermatological Science at the University of Manchester .
In the research, the team from Manchester showed specific types of bacteria could protect skin cells in the laboratory from infection by S. aureus, an infection carried in the noses of 30% of people.
While the skin normally provides a major barrier, during surgery for example it can enter the body with devastating consequences.
Tests against bacterial strains
Skinbiotherpeutics is carrying on this work and now testing to see if its flagship product, Skinbiotix, can prevent the attachment of S.aureus, the most common of skin pathogens, to skin cells.
S.aureus is the casue of a range of infections from relatively mild diseases such as impetigo to septicemia.
Infections can be treated successfully with antibiotics, but resistant strains, such as Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus ("MRSA"), are emerging, Skinbiotherapeutics said.
Tests are for SkinBiotix's inhibitory activity in skin cells against a panel of bacterial strains known to be of importance in Healthcare Acquired Infections (HCAIs).
Albeit at an early stage compared to the cosmetic programme, good progress has been made, the company said recently.