Optimised use of antibiotics to improve clinical efficacy and reduce the risk of resistance development

The emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria results in treatment failure and increased mortality in common infections.

Moreover, antibiotic resistance threatens all parts of modern medicine that depend of antibiotics to prevent and treat infections, e.g. neonatal care, major surgery and chemotherapy.

The planned research is based on medical needs and includes randomised and observational clinical trials, interventions to improve antibiotic use at hospitals, pharmacokinetic studies, metagenomic analyses of the microbiome, and in vitro studies to find new diagnostic and treatment strategies to overcome multidrug resistance.

Specific objectives are to explore 1) Which interventions are most efficient to improve antibiotic prescribing and dosing in hospitals and how can they be implemented in health care? 2) What negative effects on the gut microbiota occur during antibiotic treatment, what are the clinical implications, and how can the microbiota be restored? 3) Which oral antibiotics are effective and ecologically favourable for infections caused by multidrug-resistant ESBL-producing bacteria? and 4) Which antibiotic combinations can act synergistically to combat extensively resistant Gram-negative bacteria and how can novel in vitro methods support treatment decisions?

The results of the project will support optimised and individualised use of antibiotics to maximise their efficacy while reducing the risks of side effects and resistance development.