Adjuvant antimicrobial effects on human blood samples

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    Use of patient derived tissue for the study of novel antimicrobial effects

  • IRAS ID

    321548

  • Contact name

    Neil Kad

  • Contact email

    n.kad@kent.ac.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    University of Kent

  • Duration of Study in the UK

    0 years, 6 months, 0 days

  • Research summary

    Cancer chemotherapeutics kill dividing cells, unfortunately, this includes the cells of the immune system. As a result, cancer patients are considerably more prone to microbial infection, and of concern ~27% of infections are caused by multi-drug resistant bacteria. This leads to delays in chemotherapy treatment, and directly risks patients’ health, with particularly high mortality rates for haematological malignancies.
    We previously screened over 2700 FDA-approved drugs, and identified 8 that inhibit bacterial growth in the presence of chemotherapeutics. Here, we aim to test these compounds on blood samples drawn from patients with ongoing microbial infection to determine if the drugs can kill the bacteria found in clinical settings.
    This is an essential step towards proving the effectiveness of the identified compounds and will be used as the basis for subsequent clinical trials.

  • REC name

    South Central - Berkshire B Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    23/SC/0129

  • Date of REC Opinion

    31 Mar 2023

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion