# Utilizing Glycoside Hydrolases to Degrade Biofilms in Wounds

> **NIH NIH R21** · TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIS CENTER · 2020 · $127,878

## Abstract

Project Summary
The impact of wound infections on our healthcare system is enormous. Infections of the dermis, including burns,
surgical-site infections and chronic wounds affect approximately 6.5 million people, cause over 200,000 deaths
and cost over 50 billion of dollars in direct medical costs in the United States annually. In fact, chronically-infected
diabetic foot ulcers are considered the most significant wound care problem in the world. One major reason that
these infections are so difficult to treat is because bacteria develop ‘biofilms’ after they colonize wounds. A biofilm
is a structure, made primarily of polysaccharides, that encases bacteria and protects them from the immune
response and antimicrobials, making them up to 1,000 times less susceptible to killing. Unfortunately,
conventional antibiotics are not effective against biofilms and few new agents are in the production pipeline.
Therefore, it is of vital importance that we seek new strategies to address biofilm infections and increase our
armamentarium of therapeutic agents. Glycoside hydrolases (GHs) are natural enzymes, produced by many
organisms that hydrolyze the glycosidic linkages between two or more carbohydrates, such as those found in
biofilms. We hypothesize that GHs can be formulated to breakdown biofilms in wounds, making bacteria more
susceptible to killing by conventional antibiotics. Our preliminary data strongly support this hypothesis,
demonstrating that GHs can effectively degrade biofilms and disperse bacterial cells, making them significantly
more susceptible to antibiotics, both in vitro and in vivo. In this project we will use physiologically and clinically
relevant in vitro and in vivo models to identify the best GH/antibiotic formulations that eradicate polymicrobial
biofilms. Currently, there are no effective products on the market that effectively break down established biofilms
in wounds. There are several agents that report to prevent biofilm formation in wounds, but few claim to be
effective at removing mature biofilms. So while many agents have prophylactic activity, few are efficacious at
treating established infections. Therefore, the development of an effective biofilm-degrading agent would be
transformative for wound care. It is also unlikely that GHs pose significant risk, because their targets (glycosidic
linkages) are not readily found in human tissue, and they have been used on humans previously for other
applications without reported safety concerns.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9872984
- **Project number:** 5R21AI137462-02
- **Recipient organization:** TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIS CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** KENDRA P RUMBAUGH
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $127,878
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-02-14 → 2022-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9872984

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9872984, Utilizing Glycoside Hydrolases to Degrade Biofilms in Wounds (5R21AI137462-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9872984. Licensed CC0.

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