Eradicating today’s and tomorrow’s superbugs
Adaptive Phage Therapeutic’s (APT’s) approach arms us with the unique capability of adapting to the emergence of future antibiotic-resistant superbugs. APT’s phage bank’s precision targeted, genomically screened, and highly purified phage collection is dynamically expanding in response to the emergence of new strains of bacterial superbugs.
Phage are bacteria’s greatest natural enemy
Bacteriophage (“phage”) are viruses that host on bacteria. Phage are targeted to specific bacteria and do not face the challenges posed by traditional antibiotics.
- Phage are the most prolific killer of bacteria on earth
- Generally safe to humans & for non-targeted bacteria
- Phage replicate inside the bacteria before killing thereby increasing dose at the site of infection
- Phage are specific in killing only a narrow range of bacteria
It is now known that a single phage strain can generally infect only a single bacterial strain. Thus, in contrast to antibiotics which are effective against many different organisms, a purified phage strain is limited, but highly effective, against the strain of bacteria it can lyse. If bacterial resistance emerges in response to the initial phage administration, APT is able to rapidly identify a new phage that is effective against the mutated strain. This process can be continued until the bacterial infection is cured. No conventional antibiotics can be developed to deal with bacterial resistance with such rapidity.
APT’s methodology was previously not possible as it required breakthroughs in several areas including: genomics, virus purification, high-throughput automated phage-bacteria matching technology (APT’s phage bank Susceptibility Test™), and years of phage collection by the BIological Defense Research Directorate of the US Department of Defense.
APT’s phage bank
APT’s phage bank is a growing collection including hundreds of phage targeting six of the highest priority multi-drug resistant bacterial pathogens. Together this collection of phage provide a broad spectrum of coverage. APT’s phage bank was initiated in 2010 by the Biological Defense Research Directorate (BDRD) of the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC) and was originally proposed by APT’s co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Carl R. Merril, MD, CAPT USPHS (ret).
Phage selected through the PST are dispensed from an inventory of purified single dose vials to be administered to the patient. APT is able to provide the precisely matched therapy within 24 hours after a patient’s bacterial colony sample arrives for PST screening.
In 2016 APT entered into a license agreement and collaborative research and development agreement (CRADA) with the NMRC and acquired worldwide exclusive rights to APT’s phage bank.
APT’s phage bank Differentiation
- Polymicrobial broad-spectrum library
- Highly curated and FDA-reviewed
- Highly purified through patent-pending manufacturing methods
- Paired with a proprietary phage susceptibility test
PST (Phage Susceptibility Test)
The Mayo Clinic has teamed with APT to advance and commercialize a susceptibility test linked exclusively to APT’s phage bank investigational therapy. The PST will enable rapid, automated identification of patient-specific therapy for challenging bacterial infections, including, but not limited to, those that are antimicrobial resistant (AMR) or complicated with biofilms. At commercial launch, the PST will be offered as a laboratory developed test for worldwide availability by Mayo Clinic Laboratories (MCL).