The United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases evaluated the in vitro antimicrobial activity of cethromycin-HCL against bacterial biothreat pathogens Bacillus anthracis (BA), Francisella tularensis (FT), Yersinia pestis (YP), Burkholderia mallei (BM), and Burkholderia pseudomallei (BP).
Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) assays were performed following Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) procedures in order to evaluate activity in a 5-strain representative panel, as well as 30-strain panels for each biothreat agent. MIC90 values for cethromycin-HCL against 30-strain panels were ≤0.004 μg/mL for BA, ≤0.5 μg/mL for FT, and 4 μg/mL for BP, which supports down-selection of cethromycin-HCL into in vivo mouse models of inhalational disease. The MIC in the representative strain and MIC90 for the 30-strain panel of YP were higher (MIC = 4 μg/mL); however, published in vivo studies have demonstrated efficacy against animal models of inhalational plague. Cethromycin-HCL was not active against the representative strain of BM (MIC > 8 μg/mL) and no further studies were conducted. These studies support further evaluation of cethromycin-HCL in mouse models of inhalational disease against bacterial biothreat pathogens.
“We are very excited that Cethromycin-HCl showed great potency against bacterial biothreat pathogens in vitro. It’s the first hurdle towards the clinical development of Cethromycin-HCl as an anti-bioterror threat agent and a potential orphan drug status” said Dr. Kaludov, president of AliquantumRx Inc. “We expect the results from the animal studies to be similarly positive” added Dr. Sullivan, Chairman of the Board.
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