Engineered Bacteria for Localized Therapeutic Delivery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for delivering anti-inflammatory and anti-parasitic therapeutics face challenges in effectively targeting and penetrating tissues and parasites, leading to limited efficacy due to off-target toxicity and poor delivery mechanisms, particularly for inflammatory diseases and parasitic infections.
Innovation Solution
Live attenuated bacterial strains co-expressing protease inhibitors with plasmids, phage, phagemids, or viroids that carry peptides, antibodies, DNA, or RNA-based therapeutics, allowing for localized delivery and reduced off-target toxicity by using gram-negative or gram-positive bacteria to target specific tissues or parasites.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional anti-inflammatory drugs are administered systemically, then therapeutic coverage is achieved, but off-target toxicity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by engineering bacteria to deliver therapeutics specifically to inflamed tissues rather than distributing drugs systemically. The bacteria naturally migrate to sites of inflammation, concentrating the therapeutic effect locally while minimizing exposure to healthy tissues, thereby reducing off-target toxicity while maintaining therapeutic efficacy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses bacteria as an intermediary delivery vehicle to transport therapeutics to target sites. These engineered bacteria act as living carriers that navigate to inflamed tissues and release their cargo locally, serving as a mediator between the therapeutic agent and the target tissue, thus improving precision and reducing systemic side effects.
2Reliability
If current delivery mechanisms are used for anti-parasitic therapeutics, then treatment coverage is achieved, but penetration effectiveness is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs bacteria with inherent biological capabilities to self-navigate to parasitic infections sites. These engineered bacteria utilize their natural motility and tropism for infected tissues to deliver therapeutics directly to the target, eliminating the need for complex external delivery mechanisms and achieving precise penetration where conventional methods fail.
3Stability of the object's composition
If protease inhibitors are co-expressed with therapeutic agents, then therapeutic stability is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple functions into a single engineered bacterial system. The bacteria simultaneously express the therapeutic agent, the protease inhibitor to protect the therapeutic, and the machinery for localized delivery. This consolidation protects the therapeutic from degradation while maintaining a unified, biologically-based delivery system rather than requiring separate components.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention uses co-expression of protease inhibitors and protease sensitive therapeutic agents including phage and phagemids delivering peptides, therapeutic antibodies, DNA and RNA-based therapeutics that results in treating inflammation of a variety of disorders including psoriasis, atopic dermatitis and inflammatory bowel disease. The invention also provides bacteria that inhibit the growth of intestinal parasites such as worms, and deliver siRNA or miRNA that have specific anti-parasitic effects that results in the reduction or elimination of the parasite.