CytoGenix Announces a Pre-Clinical Research Agreement with Baylor College of Medicine to Test an Agent Against Deadly Resistant Bacteria

HOUSTON -- CytoGenix Inc. announced that it has entered into an agreement with the Section of Pediatric Infectious Diseases of Baylor College of Medicine for mice and cell studies using the company's new antimicrobial agent against a highly dangerous strain of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report, "Strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which had been largely confined to hospitals and long-term care facilities, are emerging in the community. The changing epidemiology of MRSA bears striking similarity to the emergence of penicillinase-mediated resistance in S. aureus decades ago. Even though the origin (hospital or the community) of the emerging MRSA strains is not known, the prevalence of these strains in the community seems likely to increase substantially."

Dr. Sheldon Kaplan, professor of pediatrics at Baylor and chief of service at Texas Children's Hospital Infectious Diseases Center, states, "We are seeing a significant increase in the number of children with community-acquired MRSA infection. A very resistant bug is infecting children in this region of the country. For this reason, we are interested in the results of these experiments with the CytoGenix compound."

Dr. Edward Mason, professor, and Dr. Jesus Vallejo, assistant professor, both in the department of pediatrics infectious diseases section at Baylor, will conduct studies to determine the effect of this novel compound on this strain of MRSA.

"Our antimicrobial product certainly addresses an important medical need, and we welcome the opportunity to collaborate with leading clinicians and scientific investigators to demonstrate its activity against difficult targets," states Dr. Malcolm Skolnick, CytoGenix, chairman and CEO.

Source: CytoGenix Inc.