CF Innovation Hub on lung health has made significant advances in preventing and treating CF lung infections
Living with hard-to-treat lung infections and the possibility of a flare up (exacerbation) of poor lung health is a concern for everyone living with CF, including those who are on CFTR modulator medicines such as Kaftrio.
For the last six years, a team at the University of Cambridge have been making amazing progress in understanding how people pick up lung infections (to prevent transmission in future), developing new and novel ways to treat infections, and testing ways to predict when an exacerbation might be about to happen.
Their research has focussed on the serious and hard to treat infections caused by the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) and Mycobacterium abscessus (M. abscessus), one of the NTM group of bacteria.
Here are some of the highlights from the report.
New options (‘targets’) for antibiotic drug discovery have been identified
Researchers at the Innovation Hub have identified 10 new options, known as targets, for developing new antibiotic medicines – six for M. abscessus and four for P. aeruginosa.
Bacteria constantly adapt and change to their local environment by changing the proteins they use the most. Understanding how bacteria change in the lungs of people with CF is important for managing treatment of infections and developing new antibiotics.
Antibiotics are designed to work on specific ‘essential’ bacterial proteins, so if bacteria no longer need or use that protein, the medicine will be less effective. To design new antibiotics that are likely to be effective for infection-causing strains of M. abscessus and P. aeruginosa, scientists need to identify new essential proteins, these essential proteins are known as ‘targets’ to medicinal chemists. Researchers at the Innovation Hub have identified 10 new targets – six for M. abscessus and four for P. aeruginosa
Read more about how new antibiotics are designed in an interview with Innovation Hub researcher Prof Dave Spring in the current issue of our CF Life magazine.
Many world-class scientific reports published
In research it is really important to share your results, so others can learn from what you’ve found and build on them. It can take years to be sure enough of your results to share them as a written report known as a research paper. So far, researchers at the Innovation Hub have published 19 important research papers which is a fantastic achievement.
Several of these reports share new insights into how infection-causing bacteria are passed on.
“My research focuses on where bacteria and viruses live and how people pick them up. This knowledge is really important in understanding how to prevent infections, particularly when antimicrobial resistance is such a growing problem, making treatment more difficult,” said Dr Chris Ruis a scientist funded as part of the Innovation Hub.
“We developed whole new way of trying to understand transmission of bacteria and viruses, and it’s very exciting to be at the start of something new that has the potential to translate into real-world clinical benefits.”
Further research funding - passing the baton on
We’re delighted that work that we have funded within the Innovation Hub has attracted further funding to advance this research into the clinic. For example, it has led to the ACE-CF clinical trial, funded by NIHR and LifeArc. The aim of the trial is to evaluate a new AI feature on the Breathe RM smartphone app, called Breathe RM Signal. The app uses an AI programme developed within the Innovation Hub alongside participants health monitoring data to assess if people with CF are stable or at risk of having an exacerbation that needs treatment.
“For me, one of the most exciting programmes within the Innovation Hub are the studies underway to predict exacerbations,” explained Jade, who has CF and sits on the Hub’s Independent Scientific Advisory Board.
“Like many people on Kaftrio, I have fewer exacerbations than I used to, but they do still occur. They’re a lot harder for us to detect because we don’t have the symptoms we’re used to. It means that the symptoms can become more advanced before they’re treated. Being able to detect early changes using an app would be super-helpful in treating them sooner.”
Thank you
The CF Innovation Hub on lung health at the University of Cambridge was established in 2018 under the leadership of Professor Andres Floto. Thanks to the incredible generosity of our supporters, Cystic Fibrosis Trust successfully raised £5 million for the Innovation Hub, which was match-funded by the University of Cambridge.
We would like to thank everyone who has supported our ground-breaking research through the Innovation Hub. The programme was only made possible thanks to your generous donations.
We are delighted with the success of the CF Innovation Hub on lung health. World-class advances in our knowledge of CF lung infections have been made. It has attracted new expertise into CF and inspired the next generation of CF researchers. It has also attracted new and exciting further funding.
Dr Lucy Allen, Director of Research and Healthcare Data, Cystic Fibrosis Trust
The Innovation Hub exemplifies what can be achieved with this level of investment and multidisciplinary collaboration. It has been the inspiration for the creation of our new Translational Innovation Hub Network in partnership with LifeArc, which we will announce later in the year.