PAFAP—Pseudomonas aeruginosa-focused anti-infectives pipeline
In the current WHO list of bacterial priority pathogens (WHO BPPL 2024), the World Health Organisation classifies carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria as a high-priority pathogen, which means there is an urgent need for new anti-infectives to combat this problematic bacterium. To address this need, the PAFAP project has brought together a consortium of drug discovery scientists with a professional background in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry and expertise in natural product and medicinal chemistry, microbiology, biotechnology, mechanism of action elucidation and pharmacokinetics & pharmacology. This consortium enables efficient management of a drug development pipeline from the discovery of an active agent to preclinical research. The overarching goal is to develop P. aeruginosa-active antibiotics (uridyl peptide antibiotics/UPA, argyrin and conjugated antibiotics) and pathoblockers (LasB, PqsR, LpxC and LecA/B inhibitors) as two highly complementary approaches. Various natural products and synthetic compound classes are being investigated and further developed, which address new or underutilised target structures through different mechanisms of action.
