WHY RESEARCH IN THIS AREA?

Staphylococcus aureus causes a wide range of diseases from skin infections to life-threatening invasive diseases such as bacteremia, endocarditis, pneumonia, surgical site infections, osteomyelitis and secondary nosocomial staphylococcal infections that occur mainly in intensive care units (MRSA, burns, surgical departments, immunodeficient patients, patients with implants, etc.).

The bacterium S. aureus is one of 12 designated by the World Health Organization as a “priority pathogen” – meaning investment in new drugs is urgently needed – because it is increasingly resistant to antibiotics. With antibiotic resistance increasing dramatically, there is an intensive search for alternative treatments to antibiotic procedures on several levels. One level is the use of bacteriophages for the treatment of staphylococcal attacks or the possibility of using microbial genetic mutations.

Appropriate vaccination can be a real solution to this socially serious problem. However, developing a vaccine against Staphylococcus aureus is proving to be significantly more challenging than expected. So far, the traditional technique using surface antigens (capsular conjugates or protein) has been ineffective. The idea of a Czech vaccine against staphylococci is not entirely new. The vaccine with the trademark Polystafana already existed historically, was recently used and confirmed the reality of expectations. However, its production technology and forms of control did not meet the current legislative requirements and GMP (good manufacturing practice in pharmacy) requirements for the production of vaccines, therefore its production, registration and clinical use completely disappeared.

AIM OF OUR RESEARCH

The result of these research activities should be a vaccine, developed as a new form of vaccine, constructed on the basis of toxoids, designed to combat a wide range of staphylococcal infections. In the proposed composition, the vaccine is not yet produced and registered either in the Czech Republic or mass-produced elsewhere in the world.

It is also assumed that vaccines will be introduced to the global market in the form of licensing both vaccine strains and a new technological system to one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical manufacturers. The results of the presented project will probably be followed by a series of other tests (preclinical or clinical) required by the European Medicines Agency before being put on the market.

The research is also carried out with the help of the program within the Operational Program Technology and Applications for Competitiveness, Application – call I., registration number CZ.01.01.01/01/22_002/0000585.