Investigating synthetic teixobactins to tackle Multi-Drug Resistant MRSA Keratitis

Microbial keratitis, an infection of the cornea, is the fifth leading cause of blindness worldwide. Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of keratitis . Increasing bacterial resistance against currently used antibiotics and lack of new class of antibiotics are key challenges to combat Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) MRSA keratitis and often associated with significant adverse clinical outcomes for patients and escalating healthcare costs, therefore warranting new therapies.

The overall objective of this proposal is to investigate pre-developed suite of synthetic teixobactins, for the treatment of MDR MRSA keratitis. Synthetic teixobactins exhibit significant therapeutic potential and showed efficacy against S aureus keratitis in mice (PMID:29363971). However, further investigation is now required to identify the most robust synthetic teixobactins against MDR MRSA keratitis.