Healthcare, Medical and Emergency, Software
Enable hands-free, real-time documentation for medical first responders
© Ploughshare Innovations Ltd 2026. Registered in England and Wales No. 04401901
A technology has been developed to support the growing global need for new treatments of infectious diseases – potentially saving lives and reducing costs to medical facilities worldwide. This technology involves the use of isolated polynucleotides in the treatment of bacterial infection, in particular melioidosis or glanders.
Traditional treatments for infectious diseases have focussed on the use of anti-microbial compounds (e.g. antibiotics) that target the infecting organism. However, there are key challenges facing the use and effectiveness of antibiotics, including the criticality of an efficient diagnosis and timely administration of antibiotics (especially for severe diseases), and a rising risk of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. It has therefore become vital for new therapeutic strategies that treat rapid, acute infections to be developed. However, creating new treatments is a highly complex task.
To fight infection caused by a microorganism such as bacteria, viruses and fungi, the patient’s immune system may harness a number of effector mechanisms to help control and eradicate the cause of disease. But, many pathogens can dysregulate their host’s immune system responses, meaning these can cause serious damage to the patient if activated without restriction. As a result, when medical treatments are developed, there is a crucial but significant challenge in finding the correct balance between promoting potentially pro-inflammatory responses that support the killing of harmful pathogens, versus the risks of immune pathology.
Therefore, therapies that successfully modulate and properly direct the immune response can be promising candidates for the development of alternative antimicrobial treatments.
Developed by Dstl in collaboration with the Canadian Ministry of Defence (DRDC), DNAzymes may be a potential solution to this rising need for alternatives to antibiotics. DNAzymes are synthetic, single-stranded DNA sequences (polynucleotides) that contain catalytic activity. As they have a different mechanism of action to traditional treatments of infectious diseases (such as antibiotics), they may not be susceptible to antibiotic resistance and the potential consequences of this.
Certain DNAzymes are designed to bind to complementary sequences contained within the mRNA of a target protein and cleave the mRNA at predetermined phosphodiester linkages. This action can act to ‘silence’ the target gene with consequential activity, depending on the nature of the gene being silenced. This type of DNAzyme has found particular prominence in the anti-cancer field in the past.
If this technology can be translated to the clinic, it will have far-reaching benefits globally, potentially addressing serious capability gaps in multiple pharma and biotech sectors, such as anti-microbial resistance and cancer therapy. This would potentially save lives and reduce costs to medical facilities worldwide.
This technology has the potential to treat patients with infections as an alternative method to antibiotics.
If you would like to discuss this technology or collaboration opportunities with our team, please get in touch below.
"*" indicates required fields
© Ploughshare Innovations Ltd 2026. Registered in England and Wales No. 04401901