Drug – bio-affecting and body treating compositions – Enzyme or coenzyme containing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-28
2004-06-22
Prats, Francisco (Department: 1651)
Drug, bio-affecting and body treating compositions
Enzyme or coenzyme containing
C424S094600, C424S078030, C424S450000, C424S443000, C424S045000, C424S046000, C514S002600
Reexamination Certificate
active
06752988
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention discloses a method and composition for the treatment of bacterial infections by the use of a lytic enzymes and holin enzymes blended with an appropriate carrier suitable for the treatment of the infection.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, antibiotics have been used to treat various infections. The work of Selman Waksman in the introduction and production of Streptomycetes, Dr. Fleming's discovery of penicillin, are well known as well as the work of numerous others in the field of antibiotics. Over the years, there have been additions and chemical modifications to the “basic” antibiotics in attempts to make them more powerful, or to treat people allergic to these antibiotics.
Others have found new uses for these antibiotics. U.S. Pat. No. 5,260,292 (Robinson et al.) discloses the topical treatment of acne With aminopenicillins. The method and composition for topically treating acne and acneiform dermal disorders includes applying an amount of an antibiotic selected from the group consisting of amnpicillin, amoxicillin, other aminopenicillins, and cephalosporins, and derivatives and analogs thereof, effective to treat the acne and acneiform dermal disorders. U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,917 (Robinson et al.) discloses the topical treatment of acne with cephalosporins.
However, as more antibiotics have been prescribed or used at an ever increasing rate for a variety of illnesses, increasing numbers of bacteria have developed a resistance to antibiotics. Larger doses of stronger antibiotics are now being used to treat ever more resistant strains of bacteria. Multiple antibiotic resistant bacteria have consequently developed. The use of more antibiotics and the number of bacteria showing resistance has led to increasing the amount of time that the antibiotics need to be used. Broad, non-specific antibiotics, some of which have detrimental effects on the patient, are now being used more frequently. Also, antibiotics do not easily penetrate mucus linings. Additionally, the number of people allergic to antibiotics appears to be increasing.
Consequently, other efforts have been sought to first identify and then kill bacteria.
Attempts have been made to treat bacterial diseases with by the use of bacteriophages. U.S. Pat. No. 5,688,501 (Merril, et al.) discloses a method for treating an infectious disease caused by bacteria in an animal with lytic or non-lytic bacteriophages that are specific for particular bacteria.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,686 (Norris) discloses a procedure of improved dental hygiene which comprises introducing into the mouth bacteriophages parasitic to bacteria which possess the property of readily adhering to the salivary pellicle.
It is to be noted that the direct introduction of bacteriophages into an animal to prevent or fight diseases has certain drawbacks. Specifically, the bacteria must be in the right growth phase for the phage to attach. Both the bacteria and the phage have to be in the correct and synchronized growth cycles. Additionally, there must be the right number of phages to attach to the bacteria; if there are too many or too few phages, there will either be lysis from without or no production of the lysing enzyme, respectively. The phage must also be active where damaged phase are inactive. The phages are also inhibited by many things including bacterial debris from the organism it is going to attack. Further complicating the direct use of bacteriophage to treat bacterial infections is the possibility of immunological reactions, rendering the phage non-functional.
Consequently, others have explored the use of other safer and more effective means to treat and prevent bacterial infections.
U.S. Pat. No. (application Ser. No. 08/962,523) (Fischetti, et. al.) and U.S. Pat. No. (application Ser. No. 09/257,026) (Fischetti et al.) disclose the use of an oral delivery mode, such as a candy, chewing gum, lozenge, troche, tablet, a powder, an aerosol, a liquid or a liquid spray, containing a lysin enzyme produced by group C streptococcal bacteria infected with a C1 bacteriophage for the prophylactic and therapeutic treatment of Streptococcal A throat infections, commonly known as strep throat.
U.S. Pat. No. 09/395,636 (Fischetti et al.) discloses a method and composition for the prophylactic or therapeutic treatment of bacterial infections, comprising administering an effective amount of at least one lytic enzyme produced by a bacteria infected with a bacteriophage specific for the bacteria to the site of the infection. The lytic enzyme preferably comprises a carrier suitable for delivering the lytic enzyme to the site of the infection. This method and treatment may be used for treating upper respiratory infections, topical infections, vaginal infections, eye infectionsear infections, for parenteral treatment, and for most other bacterial infections.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The method for obtaining and purifying the lytic enzyme produced by a bacteria infected with the bacteriophage is known in the art. While many lytic enzymes are phage encoded, some recent evidence suggests that phage enzymes may actually be a bacterial enzyme that is used to construct the cell wall and the phage. While replicating in the bacterium, a phage gene product may cause the upregulation or derepression of bacterial enzyme for the purpose of releasing the bacteriophage. These bacterial enzymes may be tightly regulated by the bacterial cell and are used by the bacteria for the construction and assembly of the cell wall.
The use of these lytic enzymes for the prophylactic and therapeutic treatment of bacterial diseases, however, has not been explored, except by the inventors of the present invention. Consequently, the present invention discloses the extraction and use of a variety of bacterial phage associated lytic enzymes, holin enzymes, chimeric enzymes, and shuffled enzymes for the treatment of a wide variety of illnesses caused by bacterial infections.
The use of phage associated lytic enzymes produced by the infection of a bacteria with a bacteria specific phage has numerous advantages for the treatment of diseases. As the phage are targeted for specific bacteria, the lytic enzymes do not interfere with normal flora. The actions of the lytic enzymes are fast and do not depend on bacterial growth.
Lytic enzymes can be directed to the mucosal lining, where, in residence, they will be able to kill colonizing disease bacteria.
Shuffled enzymes are enzymes in which the gene for more than one related lytic enzymes have been randomly cleaved and reassembled into a more active or specific enzyme.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, shuffled enzymes are used to treat bacterial infections, thereby increasing the speed and efficiency with which the bacteria are killed.
Chimeric enzymes are enzymes which are a combination of two or more enzymes having two or more active sites such that the chimeric enzyme can act independently on the same or different molecules. This will allow for potentially treating two or more different bacterial infections at the same time. Chimeric enzymes may also be used to treat one bacterial infection by cleaving the cell wall in more than one location.
A number of chimeric lytic enzymes have been produced and studied. Gene E-L, a chimeric lysis constructed from bacteriophages phi X174 and MS2 lysis proteins E and L, respectively, was subjected to internal deletions to create a series of new E-L clones with altered lysis or killing properties. The lytic activities oft he parental genes E, L, E-L, and the internal truncated forms of E-L were investigated in this study to characterize the different lysis mechanism, based on differences in the architecture of the different membranes spanning domains. Electron microscopy and release of marker enzymes for the cytoplasmic and periplasmic spaces revealed that two different lysis mechanisms can be distinguished depending on penetrating of the proteins of either the inner membrane or the inner and outer membranes of the
E. coli
. F
Fischetti Vincent
Loomis Lawrence
Grant Jonathan
Grant Patent Services
New Horizons Diagnostic Corp
Prats Francisco
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