Engineered phage endolysin is a potential solution for recurrent bacterial vaginosis

An engineered phage endolysin could offer a highly innovative and precise therapy for recurrent bacterial vaginosis, a disease for which no effective treatment option exists. Data on the novel endolysin targeting Gardnerella, the main pathogen in bacterial vaginosis, has now been published by the Vienna-based biotech company PhagoMed Biopharma GmbH. The data show that the novel drug candidate not only lyses any Gardnerella strain in vitro, but also fully dissolves the Gardnerella-dominated biofilm in vaginal samples of patients who had previously endured years of unsuccessful antibiotic treatment. Furthermore, due to the high specificity of the endolysin, the beneficial microbiome of the vagina remains unharmed by the treatment. This combination of high efficacy and high precision makes the endolysin a highly innovative solution for recurrent bacterial vaginosis, which affects 100 million women every year.