# Development of peptide nucleic acid antibiotics

> **NIH NIH R42** · NUBAD, LLC · 2021 · $999,985

## Abstract

The world is rapidly heading towards a pre-1940’s scenario when it comes to fighting infectious disease.
Antimicrobial resistance is a growing problem on a global scale, greatly hampering our abilities to quell worldwide
epidemics such as influenza, SARS, COVID-19, tuberculosis and malaria, as well as the simple staphylococcus
infection. Unless innovative strategies are developed to produce robust and effective new classes of antibiotics,
health care costs will continue to climb and we will completely lose our ability to combat even the most common
infection. Influenza and coronavirus (SARS and COVID-19) create an even more urgent need for targeting
resistant bacteria related to lung infections, such as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), a common
example of CRE being Klebsiella Pneumoniae (KP). Recent article by J. Gerberding, former CDC director states
“The patients at greatest risk from superbugs like CRE and other bacterial pathogens that cause lung diseases,
are the ones who are already more vulnerable to illness from viral lung infections like influenza, severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS), and COVID-19. The 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, for example, claimed nearly
300,000 lives around the world. Many of those deaths — between 29% and 55% — were actually caused
by secondary bacterial pneumonia, according to the CDC.” A recent study (Zhou, Lancet 2020, 395, 1054-1062)
from Wuhan reports that almost 50% of COVID-19 related deaths showed evidence of secondary bacterial
infections (pneumonia, sepsis, bloodstream infections).
Cases of multidrug-resistant (MDR, resistance to 2-3 classes), extensive drug resistance (XDR, resistance to
most classes except colistin or tigecycline) and even pan drug resistance (PDR, resistance to all classes)
nosocomial bacterial infections have skyrocketed in recent years, and the emergence of pan drug-resistant
isolates are making these infections increasingly difficult to treat. Hospital-acquired infections like these account
for up to 4% of all hospital stays in the United States and are incredibly diverse in causative pathogen, antibiotic
resistance profile, and severity. A significant cause of nosocomial infection is the Enterobacteriaceae family,
which includes Gram-negative bacilli that can be commensal or pathogenic. Enterobacteriaceae have a
widespread clinical and economic impact due to the diversity of infections they cause; this family causes many
infections such as pneumonia, bloodstream infections (BSIs), urinary tract infections (UTIs), and intra-abdominal
infections (IAIs). The World Health Organization (WHO) lists carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE)
as having a critical need for novel antibiotics on their Priority Pathogens list. Because the mortality of these multi
drug-resistant infections is between 30 and 50% and there is such difficulty in finding viable treatments, the need
for novel therapeutics for these pathogens must be addressed.
One of the challenges of research...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10151301
- **Project number:** 2R42AI114114-03
- **Recipient organization:** NUBAD, LLC
- **Principal Investigator:** DEV PRIYA ARYA
- **Activity code:** R42 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $999,985
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2021-02-10 → 2025-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10151301

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10151301, Development of peptide nucleic acid antibiotics (2R42AI114114-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10151301. Licensed CC0.

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