The University of Wrocław (UWr) will be the coordinator of an international project on antibiotic resistance. The researchers are aiming to develop a treatment method for patients infected with Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria.

Team from the Department of Pathogen Biology and Immunology at the University of Wrocław will coordinate work under the project ‘Design and implementation of effective cOmbination of Phages and Antibiotics for improved TheRApy protocols against KLEbsiella pneumoniae’ (KLEOPATRA). The aim is to develop a treatment for patients infected with Klebsiella pneumoniae (recognised by the WHO as a new critical pathogen).

The KLEOPATRA consortium will use the One Health approach to support research into antimicrobial therapies: improving the efficacy, specificity, delivery methods, combining or repurposing drugs and therapeutics to treat bacterial or fungal infections. As part of the project, research teams will analyse the most prevalent strains of K. pneumoniae in human and animal reservoirs and environmental ecosystems.

The total budget of the project is EUR 1.5 million. In addition to researchers from UWr, the research will involve partners from: KU Leuven (Belgium), Sorbonne Universit (France), Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment and INVITRIS SME (Germany) and Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel).

The multidrug-resistant bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae significantly complicates treatment in the clinical setting. This is due to its ubiquitous resistance to antibiotics and its specific biological characteristics, including a protective barrier that allows it to evade a response from the host immune system. Wrocław scientists have already identified phages that manage to overcome this barrier through specific enzymes and re-sensitise the bacteria to the innate immune system and antibiotic therapy.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński