EE Grant Recipient Dr. David Pride Identifies 10+ MRSA Phages 

At Emily’s Entourage (EE), we realize that what drives disease progression and mortality in people with cystic fibrosis (CF) — and what threatens their ability to wait for transformative therapies — are infections, specifically drug-resistant bacterial infections. More approaches are urgently needed to combat these infections and enable those with CF to combat these dangerous infections. 

David Pride, MD, PhD
University of San Diego

That’s why we are excited to share that EE Grant Recipient, David Pride, MD, PhD, and his team at the Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics Lab (IPATH) have identified and characterized more than 10 methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) phages that could potentially be used to treat people with cystic fibrosis (CF) who have hard-to-treat MRSA infections.

In 2020, EE awarded grant funding to Dr. Pride and his team to build a library of bacteriophages to treat people with CF who have MRSA infections. This grant was part of EE’s “buying time” initiative, which supports development of bridge therapies to sustain people with CF and particularly those in the final 10% of the CF community without mutation-targeted therapies while they wait for breakthrough therapies to advance. 

Bacteriophages, also known as phages, are viruses that attack a specific bacterial host. Abundant in the environment, phages are often found in the dirtiest places, including sewage water, gym floor drains, swamps, and more. What makes phage therapy appealing is that it can be used to treat multidrug resistant bacteria when all other antibiotics fail. 

Although phage therapy is not a licensed treatment in the United States, in certain cases, individuals with CF who have serious multidrug-resistant bacterial infections that are not responding to antibiotics may be eligible for phage therapy through a special request from the FDA’s Emergency or Single Patient Expanded Access Investigational New Drug (IND) procedure.

Interested in learning more about what it is like to undergo phage therapy? Read about CF advocate Ella Balasa’s experience being treated with phage therapy. Ella’s story is a testament to the importance of new approaches to treating drug resistant infections as she found herself turning to phage therapy when there were no other options available. 

The successful development of these MRSA phages is just one example of how our grant recipients are turning research projects into potential therapies for people with CF who need them most. It is because of YOU, our mighty Entourage, that we are able to fund and support incredible science like the work being done by Dr. Pride and his team at IPATH. We thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to sharing more updates like this in the future! 

Please visit IPATH’s site to learn more about their phage therapy program and if you or a loved one might be a candidate. We also encourage you to share this information with any patients for whom it is relevant. 

If you have any questions, please contactipath@ucsd.edu.