The FAMEGA project focuses on the treatment of infections with pathogenic bacteria, both in humans and in animals. Currently infections are treated widely and excessively with antibiotics, whose massive and, often, improper use causes great concern, because it has given rise to a considerable increase of antibiotic resistance phenomena.
Summary
An alternative to the use of antibiotics, through the definition, experimentation and development, is the use of the mixtures of bacteriophages and metabolites from the active mycetes endofiti – through innovative strategies of chemical characterization of natural substances, in vitro and in vivo screening and genetic sequencing applied to microorganisms (bacteriophages and mycetes endophytes).
Our proposal is to develop – through innovative in vitro automated screening strategies, the Next Generation genetic Sequencing (NGS) and the opportunities offered by bioinformatics – pharmacologically active alternatives to chemo-antibiotics with the aim of developing targeted therapies to treat important and widespread human diseases by eliminating the risks connected to the development of the antibiotic-resistance phenomenon, allergic phenomena and drug contamination of agro-food supply chains. These mixtures of specific bacteriophages and antimicrobials of natural origin would provide an alternative to the already known antibiotics, and can potentially show activity along different metabolic pathways where a possible resistance mechanisms have not yet been observed.