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It’s one of the world’s biggest health threats: Now a small Norwegian company may have found a super weapon in the fight against anti-resistant bacteria.
“A global threat to health,” write the US health authorities. “One of the ten greatest threats to health facing humanity,” writes the WHO. “A serious risk to our future health,” writes FHI.
Antibiotic resistant bacteria are perhaps the greatest threat to humanity. In 2050, more people are expected to lose their lives from infections as a result of antibiotic resistance than from cancer.
Now a Norwegian company has started to fight and believes it can find a solution.
– This is often referred to as the next big pandemic and therefore we want to develop products that will eliminate such infections, SoftOx Solutions CEO Geir Almås tells Nettavisen Økonomi.
– If we succeed, it will be the next great discovery in the treatment of infections since the discovery of antibiotics. It is the greatest health revolution we have ever had.
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Scientific
Norwegian stock market mosquito SoftOx Solutions is researching and developing an infection remover called Biofilm Eradicator. The project aims to develop an alternative treatment for infections in chronic wounds. In many cases, it will replace traditional antibiotics.
– Then we can treat infections with a new, broad-spectrum product that will be an important support for antibiotics, he says.
Almås says they have discovered that combining two acids, acetic acid and hypochlorous acid (used to purify drinking water and swimming pools, editor’s note), emerges a unique ability to penetrate biofilm.
Biofilms are bacteria that clump together and prevent the wound from healing. This makes the bacteria resistant to both antibacterial agents and the body’s defense mechanisms against bacteria. Therefore, antibiotics do not work.
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It does not work
The biggest problem with current antibiotics, which had their breakthrough during World War II, is the development of resistance: bacteria have learned to defend themselves over the past 75 years, so antibiotics stop working. This is often due to biofilm.
– The World Health Organization has stated that we are in a post-antibiotic period, the period in which antibiotics have stopped working. This will become more and more serious in the coming years, we can risk that a small injury could be fatal, Almås warns.
He says that 95 percent of all bacteria live in a biofilm. They live so close that they can pass antibiotic resistant genes to each other if they need protection. In this way, so-called superbugs are created. Each bacterium has resistance to several different antibiotics, and in the worst case, all known antibiotics stop working.
Chronic ulcers occur in 1-2 percent of the world’s population, or 80-160 million. More than 60 percent of chronic wounds have such biofilms. An important key to wound healing is removing the infection from the biofilm, which prevents the wound from healing.
– Today we surgically remove the diseased tissue from the wound. With our method, one will do the same. But by using our product after the procedure, you eliminate all the infection and thus avoid having to use antibiotics, which in the worst case trigger new resistance.
– It is not a pill, but a liquid with which you soak a bandage, and which is then applied to the wound, says Almås.
In the zone
– The advantage is that it acts completely locally, while preserving the bacterial flora that the body wants to take care of. We can also imagine other applications, such as in the lungs and hands. It will be the same principle, but it will be applied in a slightly different way. No one has a broader spectrum than we do without triggering the development of resistance, says Almås.
The risk of serious side effects is always critical to the development of new drugs. Almås says what is very positive about the tests so far is that the infection eliminator has not delayed such healing in animal experiments.
– In addition, our solution is very ecological. This is a very gentle product that uses the body’s own substances, hypocycic acid, as well as acetic acid. It is a natural acid that, among other things, can occur when fruit rots, says Almås.
In Norway, we have used less antibiotics than in many other countries. This was a theme during the corona pandemic this spring and was used as an explanation for why mortality, for example, was so much higher in a country like Italy.
Also read: Norwegian researchers have found a new type of bacteria
Seriously worried
– Covid-19 attacks the immune system and creates open wounds in the respiratory tract. In many hospitals, there are natural cases of resistant bacteria, and therefore the lungs become infected with resistant bacteria. Then you are quite helpless, as traditional antibiotics stop working. Thus, the patient contracts several infections in which current antibiotics do not work, says Almås.
– Should we be concerned in Norway about the many resistant bacteria?
– We are better than other countries, but yes, we should be seriously concerned. We live in a small, open economy, where it is very easy to bring resistant bacteria home from abroad.
Absolutely basic
Antibiotic resistant bacteria are therefore one of the biggest concerns we have. Almås says that antibiotics are a very basic treatment in what we do in the healthcare system. We depend on antibiotics to fight infection.
But the new treatment principle will not work against all infections. Almås says that for some infections, antibiotics will remain an alternative, for example in blood poisoning. The new infection remover cannot contribute there.
However, foreigners have a lot of faith in the project. The project is a research and development collaboration between SoftOx Solutions and leading American and European wound clinics.
SoftOx announced in early November that the US Department of Defense had allocated a meager $ 2 million to the company. It should be used for the clinical development of the infection remover for chronic wounds.
The Danish Medicines Agency has recommended that further studies be carried out in order to treat respiratory infections, including Covid-19.
Three years
– What are we talking about in terms of time, when can the new stripper be ready on the market?
– I think three years is realistic to develop an infection remover for use on chronic wounds. In the first phase, we test this on animals to find the correct doses and that they are effective. We have done this by a good margin without damaging wound healing.
– Regarding the product for the treatment of respiratory infections, we expect to start human studies in the second quarter of next year, Almås responds.
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