News
January 17, 2013
SMI Presents: Superbugs & Superdrugs - A Focus on Antibacterials
4th March to 5th March 2013, London, UK
AN UPDATE ON CURRENT ISSUES AND PROGRESS IN C. DIFFICILE DISEASE (CDAD)
William Weiss, Director of Pre-Clinical Services, University of North Texas Health Science Center
- A brief history and review
- The changing epidemiology and resistance development in CDAD
- Transmission, Virulence factors and clinical manifestations
- Surveillance, diagnosis and clinical testing
- Prevention, emerging therapies and potential for efficacy
November 12, 2012
UNTHSC Pre-Clinical Services (PCS) is pleased to announce the recent hire of Timothy Murphy who joins the group as Project Manager.
Tim comes to the group with 16 years experience in the drug discovery and pharmacology industry. He has previously held positions of increasing responsibility in ViviSource Laboratories, Arpida Inc., Enanta Pharmaceuticals and Wyeth Research. Tim brings with him extensive experience and expertise in the design and performance of anti-infective efficacy models: antibacterial and antiviral, pharmacology and oncology studies as well as PK/PD evaluations and vaccine discovery research. He has earned both B.S. and M.S. degrees in biology and has co-authored or presented numerous manuscripts and presentations.
UNTHSC PCS welcomes Tim and looks forward to the contributions that he will make along with expanding the expertise and scope of testing that the group has to offer to our Sponsors.
July 30, 2012
The UNTHSC Pre-Clinical Services group will be in attendance at the 52nd Interscience Conference of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICCAC) in San Francisco, CA (September 9 - 12, 2012) and welcomes the opportunity to meet with current collaborators as well as prospective Sponsors to discuss ongoing and future research projects, utilizing our expertise to meet your R & D requirements. If interested, please contact William Weiss (817-725-2111 or william.weiss@unthsc.edu) to arrange for a convenient day and time to meet.
April 2, 2012
UNTHSC Pre-Clinical services, in conjunction with Affinium Pharmaceuticals, presented their findings on the effects of AFN-1252, a novel fatty acid biosynthesis inhibitor antibacterial agent, on the in vitro and in vivo expression of S. aureus virulence genes at the 22nd European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease (ECCMID) in London, UK.
Presentation Summary: (full details and time can be found on the ECCMID Congress website)
Poster P2058 - AFN-1252 Alters In Vitro and In Vivo Staphylococcus aureus Gene Expression and Reduces Bacterial Counts in a Mouse Granuloma Infection Model
M. E. Pulse1, N. Kaplan2, J. Parsons3, C. O. Rock3, M. Kukula1, P. Nguyen1, J. Pierce1, D. Valtierra1, W. J. Weiss1, J. W. Simecka1
1UNTHSC, Fort Worth, TX, 2Affinium Pharmaceuticals, Toronto, Canada, 3St. Jude Children’s Res. Hosp., Memphis, TN
Exposure of S. aureus cultures to AFN-1252 resulted in the anticipated up-regulation of genes involved in the FAS II pathway associated with the FapR regulon and the unpredicted down-regulation of several virulence genes that are controlled by the SaeRS two-component regulator. In the MG infection model, a single oral dose of AFN-1252 at 2 hours post-infection resulted in mean log10 CFU reductions of 2.9 - 3.1 in 24 - 48 hours after dosing. PK analysis of this fluid revealed that the relative exposure (AUC) of AFN-1252 in the granuloma fluid was 85% of the corresponding plasma levels, and qRT-PCR of S. aureus RNA extracted from granuloma fluid indicated that fabH expression was up-regulated and virulence factor expression was down-regulated following the single dose of AFN-1252. AFN-1252 was also dosed consecutively (2, 26, 50 hours) in the MG model, which maximally reduced granuloma-associated S. aureus counts by 5.3 log10 CFU within 72 hours of the first dose. AFN-1252 triggered the up-regulation of genes associated with the FASII pathway in S. aureus, and it simultaneously down-regulated virulence genes controlled by the SaeRS regulator. AFN-1252 not only altered S. aureus gene expression in the granuloma fluid, but it also therapeutically reduced the CFU counts in the fluid as well.