Laura-Isobel Mccall, PhD, and Zhibo Yang, PhD, co-principal investigators and associate professors of chemistry and biochemistry at The University of Oklahoma. Credit: The University of Oklahoma
Researchers at the University of Oklahoma have been awarded an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health for their research into antimicrobial resistance. The project, titled “Novel single-cell mass spectrometry to assess the role of intracellular drug concentration and metabolism in antimicrobial treatment failure,” aimed to utilize single-cell mass spectrometry to investigate antimicrobial resistance.
To address the gap in understanding intracellular pathogen infections researchers developed single-cell mass spectrometry techniques to quantify intracellular drug and metabolite levels. “Our project builds upon Dr. Yang’s research that shows variations in chemotherapy drugs inside individual cancer cells,” Laura-Isobel McCall said. “Using his techniques with single-cell mass spectrometry, if we find that cells with persistent pathogens also have less intracellular drug levels, then we could explain antimicrobial treatment failure.”
The awarded grant is expected to provide $2.65 million in funding for five years. “I think this funding recognizes how exciting our idea is, and what a big impact our project can have,” McCall said. “It also acknowledges that our approach is a new way of thinking about infectious disease treatment failures. If our hypothesis is correct, it could change how we manage and treat infections and what we do about antimicrobial treatment failure.”
More information about the research project can be found at NIH Reporter. The project aims to provide greater insight into the mechanisms of treatment failure in a number of infectious diseases. Future research includes expanding the methodology to quantify antibacterial and antivirals and their effects on treatment failure.