Treating exacerbations in Crohn's disease: Developing a selective antimicrobial agent for microbiome engineering

“Procarta是一家抗菌药物发现和开发组织，拥有一个独特的平台，正在开发一种新型抗菌剂：将细菌转录作为一种新的靶点。专利抗菌剂是DNA的短片段，它们侵入细菌细胞，通过干扰转录因子的新机制阻断基因表达来杀死细菌。通过改变所用DNA片段的序列，可以靶向不同的细菌，这意味着该技术的首次展示可能会产生多种新的抗菌剂。Procarta的药物通过快速合理的过程来定义，例如检查基因组序列，并且可以被制成广谱或窄谱，这意味着它们可以用于新的应用。肠道微生物组是各种细菌的复杂混合物，被认为对许多疾病具有深远的影响，最值得注意的是炎症性肠病，如克罗恩病。在这种情况下，一个被称为肠杆菌科的细菌家族的过度生长与肠道炎症增加和疾病的严重程度有关。Procarta开发了一种抗菌剂PRO-202，可以选择性地杀死这些细菌。通过这样做，它开辟了一个新的治疗机会，以改善这种具有挑战性的疾病的治疗。"

"Procarta is an antimicrobial drug discovery and development organisation with a unique platform that is developing a new type of antimicrobial: opening up bacterial transcription as a novel target. The proprietary antimicrobials are short fragments of DNA that invade the bacterial cell and kill by blocking gene expression through a novel mechanism of interfering with transcription factors. By changing the sequence of the DNA fragment used different bacteria can be targeted, meaning that the first demonstration of the technology may lead to multiple new antimicrobials.Procarta's drugs are defined by a rapid and rational process, such as examination of genomic sequence, and can be made to be broad- or narrow-spectrum, meaning they can be used for new applications.One such is microbiome engineering. The gut microbiome is a complex mixture of varied bacteria that is thought to have a profound effect on numerous diseases, most notably inflammatory bowel disorders such as Crohn's Disease. In this case overgrowth of a family of bacteria, called the Enterobacteriaceae, is associated with increased inflammation in the intestine and severity of disease. Procarta has developed an antimicrobial, PRO-202, that can selectively kill these bacteria. By doing so it opens up a new therapeutic opportunity to improve treatment of this challenging disease."