Funding for research on new antibiotics Olivier Richel receives NACTAR grant from NWO

Thanks to NWO funding, four projects into new antibiotics can start. Resistance to antibiotics is one of the greatest threats to public health. The NACTAR program focuses on research into new sources and alternatives to antibiotics. A total of nearly 1.6 million euros has been made available together with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.

With the research budget, the studies below can be carried out in which the effect of new antimicrobial agents and methods are validated. This can be an important contribution to curing diseases caused by bacteria against which current drugs and antibiotics no longer work.

At Radboud university medical center, a project of the Department of Internal Medicine was assigned:

Trained immunity to prevent recurrent urinary tract infections

Main applicant: Olivier Richel
Co-applicants: Mihai Netea and Reinout van Crevel
Consortium member: Institut Pasteur, Paris

Frequent use of antibiotics for recurrent urinary tract infections (rUTI) is a major driver of antibiotic resistance. A possible explanation for rUTI is insufficient development of local immunity during a first UTI, leading to little protection against a subsequent infection. Stimulation of the local immunity (trained immunity) might reduce rUTI, and conesequently lead to less use of antibiotics. BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin) bladder instillations are effective against bladder cancer by trained immunity. In addition, BCG might be effective against infections. In this project we will evaluate the effect of BCG bladder instillations in mice on rUTI and local immunity.