# Developing protective monoclonal antibodies against Gram- and Gram+ bacteria

> **NIH NIH U19** · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $360,857

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ ABSTRACT SUMMARY:
Antibiotic resistance is increasingly a threat to human health resulting in difficult to treat infections, with some
multidrug resistant pathogens being resistant to all or most all antibiotics. To combat this growing crisis, this
U19 is taking an integrated approach to the generation and development of therapeutics against key virulence
mechanism of bacteria. Specifically, this CORE will in an integrated approach with Projects 1 and 2, seek to
develop monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapies against different bacterial adhesins that extensive studies have
shown to be critical for the ability of pathogens to bind to and resist removal from host tissues and surfaces.
Uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) use CUP adhesive pili tipped with adhesin proteins to bind to a variety of human
tissues including the uninflammed bladder, the inflamed bladder, the kidney, urinary catheters and the
gastrointestinal tract (GIT). In addition, Klebsiella expresses a mannose binding FimH adhesin that is critical for
the ability of Klebsiella to cause UTIs. Further, CUP adhesins in Acinetobacter baumanii, CupD and PrpD, as
well as the EbpA adhesin at the tip of the sortase assembled pilus of the Gram-positive Enterococci, bind to
fibrinogen on implanted catheters to promote biofilm formation and catheter-associated UTIs (CAUTIs). In
collaboration with Project 1 this CORE will use state of the art high throughput cloning and selection methods
to generate mAbs against all of these adhesins and evaluate their potential as antibiotic sparing therapeutics.
These mAbs will also elucidate important epitopes for future anti-adhesin vaccine design. Further, all of the
CUP adhesive pili are assembled by homologous systems involving a periplasmic chaperone and and outer
membrane usher. The usher is a five domain assembly platform for CUP pilus polymerization and its
transmembrane domain functions as a pore for extrusion of the assembled fiber. This pore is gated by a plug
domain that only exits the pore when the usher is assembly a pilus fiber. Thus, usher proteins will be targeted
for mAb generation and mAbs will be selected for both their ability to bind and inhibit usher mediated pilus
assembly and/or for the ability to “open” the usher pore in the absence of a growing pilus fiber. Having an open
pore without a pilus fiber will render the bacteria sensitive to antibiotics from our existing arsenal that are not
generally able to cross the Gram-negative outer membrane and thus are not generally efficacious against
Gram-negative pathogens. Targeting of adhesins and their assembly has the advantage that mutations in the
binding pocket of targeted adhesins or in critical assembly sites in the usher to prevent binding of the
therapeutic to its target would likely destroy adhesin function and thus render the pathogen non-virulent. The
mAbs generated have the promise to be a viable alternative for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant infecitons.
Therapeutic mA...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10352467
- **Project number:** 5U19AI157797-02
- **Recipient organization:** WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Ali Hassan Ellebedy
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $360,857
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-03-01 → 2026-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10352467

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10352467, Developing protective monoclonal antibodies against Gram- and Gram+ bacteria (5U19AI157797-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10352467. Licensed CC0.

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