Pitt researchers receive multi-million dollar contracts

Two doctors from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center received two of four national,… Two doctors from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center received two of four national, multi-million-dollar contracts from the National Institutes of Health to study antibiotic resistance.

Dr. Alejandro Hoberman of the Children’s Hospital of UPMC received an $8.2 million contract for the study of ear infections in children, and Dr. Victor Yu received a contract for $14.9 million for the study of pneumonia diagnosis.

Yu, a professor in Pitt’s Department of Medicine, will conduct a study in conjunction with six other institutes in the United States and abroad. The $14.9 million will be divided between Pitt and the other institutions.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a part of the National Institutes of Health, chose the recipients of the contracts from several who applied and will supply the funds in increments.

“Antibiotic resistance is a very high-priority area for the NIAID,” said Farukh Khambaty, project officer at the NIAID. The contract awardees were selected “based on the quality of the science and the public health relevance,” he said.

In the past, bacteria and other microbes resistant to antibiotics were not of great concern because new drugs could effectively combat the bacteria, said Hoberman, chief of the Division of General Academic Pediatrics at Children’s Hospital. Over time, however, some forms of bacteria built up resistances to existing antibiotics.

The concern is now worldwide, Khambaty said.

Hoberman’s contract deals with ear infections in children, a very common ailment, he said.

“Ear infections are the most frequently diagnosed illness in children in the United States. It’s the most common reason for children to receive an antibiotic,” Hoberman said.

His study will investigate whether treatment time for ear infections can be halved. The typical treatment time frame, after children began receiving antibiotics, is 10 days. If treatment proves effective in five days, fewer antibiotics would be required, reducing the chance that bacteria could develop resistance.

“Every time [children in the study] have an ear infection, they will be treated with either a short duration treatment strategy or standard duration treatment strategy and that will be in a blind fashion,” Hoberman said.

The study will involve 600 children over a projected four-year span and will be conducted mainly in Pittsburgh. There is an affiliated research site for the study in Pennsylvania, as well as one in Kentucky, he said.

Hoberman will also investigate if the prescribed antibiotic can limit the recurrence of ear infections by eliminating lingering, resistant bacteria.

“It’s important not only that you treat and cure the ear infection, but also that the likelihood of you harboring resistant organisms in the back of the nose after treatment is the same or lower,” Hoberman said.

Yu’s contract relates to the study of diagnosis and treatment of pneumonia, the number-one cause of infection-related death in the world, he said.

After years of treating pneumonia with a common type of antibiotic, bacteria and other microbes had an easier time developing resistance. Doctors have too often relied on a powerful, one-size-fits-all type of antibiotic rather than using varied, specific types of antibiotics, he said.

“Doctors have gotten into the habit … as soon as they think it’s pneumonia to take out the cannonball,” Yu said.

Yu’s study will seek to examine and identify the specific microbes causing pneumonia in a patient so that more specific, narrowed types of antibiotics can be applied.

The study aims to examine 6,000 participants across the seven institutions. The study is projected to take four years. To make the proper diagnosis to decide treatment, Yu plans to incorporate older and newer diagnosis methods such as a gram stain test, which stains a microbe for clearer viewing, and a molecular test known as polymerase chain reaction.

Depending on the results of the study, older “cannonball” drugs such as penicillin could be brought back if antibiotic resistance can be controlled.