University of Oslo

A group of researchers have developed a genomic approach that can track the spread of multiple common antibiotic-resistant bacteria in a hospital at the same time. The new sequencing technique could help to prevent and manage hospital infections faster and more effectively than current methods, which culture and sequence all pathogens separately. Published in the Lancet Microbe , the proof-of-concept study from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the University of Oslo, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo in Italy and collaborators captured the whole population of pathogenic bacteria found in the gut, upper airways and lungs of patients in multiple hospital intensive care units (ICUs) and ordinary wards during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The team was able to see the type of bacteria that patients had and found that each ICU patient was colonised by at least one treatment-resistant bacteria, with the majority being colonised by several of them at once. Responsible for an estimated 1.27 million deaths globally in 2019 and classified by the World Health Organization as one of the top ten threats to global public health, antimicrobial resistance occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and find ways to resist the effects of antimicrobial drugs. As a result, infections become harder to treat and the risk of serious complications and death increases. As drug resistance is an ongoing issue in hospitals and other clinical settings, it is hoped that the new approach could be used alongside existing hospital clinical surveillance systems to identify, track and limit the spread of common multiple treatment-resistant bacteria. Co-senior author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the University of Oslo, Jukka Corander, said: “Our method that captures genetic information on multiple bacterial strains at the same time has the potential to transform the genomic surveillance of pathogens, enabling us to capture essential information both quicker and more comprehensively than ever before without losing resolution.” Nicholas Thomson, co-senior author from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, added: “Integration of this approach could help develop and improve guidelines for assessing and managing the risk of treatment-resistant infections for all the patients in a hospital, particularly those on ICUs.”

MONDAY, July 8, 2024 -- Prospective parents experience heightened levels of depression and traumatic stress after the detection of fetal anomalies leading to termination of pregnancy, according to a study published online June 20 in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology . Mona Bekkhus, Ph.D., from the University of Oslo in Norway, and colleagues conducted a prospective observational study to examine acute and long-term stress in men and women after detection of fetal anomalies leading to pregnancy termination. A total of 87 of 180 pregnant women with a fetal anomaly detected by ultrasound examination terminated their pregnancy; 72 partners were included in the sample. A comparison group of 93 women and their 81 partners who did not terminate the pregnancy following a diagnosis were also included. Participants completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and the Impact of Events Scale (IES). The researchers found that higher symptom levels of depression, but not traumatic stress, were reported prior to the termination by women who underwent pregnancy termination compared with women who chose not to terminate their pregnancy. Among men, depression and all subscales of traumatic stress differed (e.g., IES intrusion; mean difference, 5.31). Over time, women experienced significantly more depressive symptoms than men (β = 4.33) and had higher symptom levels of all subscales of traumatic stress (e.g., IES intrusion; β = 5.27). "Understanding the shared and unique experiences of women and men during this period can guide practitioners in providing clear communication, nonjudgmental support, and timely access to counselling services," the authors write. Abstract/Full Text Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden I June 27, 2024 I Oncopeptides AB (publ) (Nasdaq Stockholm: ONCO), a biotech company focused on difficult-to-treat cancers, today announces that the first candidate drug based on the company´s unique platform for Small Polypeptide based innate Killer Engagers (SPiKE) has been selected. The SPiKE platform uses multi-specific constructs, able to bind to multiple targets simultaneously. The first drug candidate, OPSP1, is a bi-specific construct designed to both engage natural killer cells, a type of immune cell, and target cancer cells. The goal of OPSP1 is to prove the ability of the SPiKE platform to activate these natural killer cells. To do this, OPSP1 targets a specific protein called BCMA that is expressed in some cancers including multiple myeloma. By targeting this protein, Oncopeptides will be able to assess how well the SPiKE platform can activate natural killer cells to fight cancer, a crucial step before continued clinical development of the SPiKE platform. “There is significant potential in NK cell-mediated therapy for difficult-to-treat cancers,” says Dr. Karl-Johan Malmberg, professor at Oslo University and Karolinska Institutet. ”Despite the substantial advancements in current treatments, the reality is that resistance to these therapies often develops. This underscores the urgent need for new and innovative treatment options to address this unmet medical need.” NK cell-mediated therapy represents a promising avenue in cancer immunotherapy, with ongoing research aimed at overcoming existing challenges and enhancing its therapeutic potential. As a next step for Oncopeptides, a first-in-human clinical trial will be designed to evaluate the safety, efficacy, and overall therapeutic potential of OPSP1. “The ability to show a promising product pipeline behind its flagship product is important for a growing biotech company. Following the accomplishments we have seen with our first technology platform PDC, where we have an approved product, we are excited to also announce progress with SPiKE, our second technology platform,” says Sofia Heigis, CEO of Oncopeptides. “This milestone is a major step forward in our ambition to ensure that Oncopeptides can continue to provide hope for patients suffering from difficult-to-treat cancers, and value to shareholders investing in our science.” A pre-clinical project for the SPiKE platform has received a financial grant from the Eurostars 3-program, co-financed by the European Union research and innovation program “Horizon Europe” and is driven by an international research consortium that includes world-leading expertise from the department of Cancer Immunology at Oslo University Hospital, Pharmatest Services Ltd in Turku, Finland and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (KTH), from where the technology originally stems. With this grant, Sweden’s Innovation Agency, Vinnova, has provided Oncopeptides resources to develop pre-clinical proof of concept for a novel synthetic small polypeptide for the treatment of multiple myeloma. For more information, including questions and answers for investors and additional details on the SPiKE platform, please visit our website . About Oncopeptides Oncopeptides is a biotech company focusing on research, development and commercialization of targeted therapies for difficult-to-treat cancers. The company uses its proprietary Peptide Drug Candidate platform (PDC) to develop compounds that rapidly and selectively deliver cytotoxic agents into cancer cells. Pepaxti® (melphalan flufenamide, also called melflufen) has been granted Marketing Authorization, in the European Union, the EEA-countries Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway, as well as in the UK. Pepaxti is indicated in combination with dexamethasone for the treatment of adult patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least three prior lines of therapies, whose disease is refractory to at least one proteasome inhibitor, one immunomodulatory agent, and one anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody, and who have demonstrated disease progression on or after the last therapy. For patients with a prior autologous stem cell transplantation, the time to progression should be at least 3 years from transplantation. Oncopeptides is developing several new compounds based on its proprietary technology platforms and is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm with the ticker ONCO. For more information see: www.oncopeptides.com SOURCE: Oncopeptides