Market assessment of water-soluble chromogenic substrates for detecting bacterial beta-lactamases

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Beta-lactam antibiotics such as penicillins and cephalosporins are the most widely prescribed pharmaceuticals for treating potentially life-threatening bacterial infections. Human pathogenic bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics in general. In the case of the beta-lactam antibiotics, the main cause of antibiotic resistance is the ability of bacteria to produce enzymes called beta-lactamases that catalyze a chemical reaction of the beta-lactam with water resulting in the destruction of the ability of these pharmaceuticals to act as antibiotics. Recent research at the University of Waterloo has led to the discovery of a synthetic compound, now called Aubergen2, that undergoes a very dramatic (chromogenic) colour change from yellow to deep purple in the presence of bacterial beta-lactamases thus allowing for a very rapid visual method for detecting the presence of bacteria that are resistant to beta-lactam antibiotics. Aubergen2 has the potential to provide substantial improvement in the area of visual detection of antibiotic resistance to guide the choice of the most appropriate antibiotics for treatment of bacterial infections. Additionally, this chromogenic compound has much potential for use in the discovery of inhibitors of the bacterial beta-lactamases that can be administered along with beta-lactam antibiotics to overcome antibacterial resistance as well as in new biotechnological methods in areas as diverse as virus detection to detection of asbestos. This proposal seeks to enlist an independent group to carry out a market analysis to determine if this technology has the potential to be competitive in the Canadian and world-wide markets for chromogenic enzyme substrates.