CHARM Investigator: Saima Aslam, MD

CHARM INVESTIGATOR: SAIMA ASLAM, MD

Bacteriophage therapy to combat multidrug resistant bacterial infections

Solid organ transplant recipients and those with implanted prosthetic devices such as left ventricular assist devices are at particular risk for complicated bacterial infections. Novel therapeutic strategies are needed to treat patients with life threatening multidrug resistant (MDR) bacterial infections. Bacteriophages are a type of virus that target and kill bacteria. These viruses can be harnessed to treat bacterial infections for which there are no effective antibiotics. Bacteriophage therapy has been used to treat several patients with MDR infections at UCSD and investigation is ongoing regarding the design and conduct of clinical trials to further investigate this novel treatment strategy

Biographical

Saima Aslam received her medical degree (MBBS) at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan. She went on to complete her Master of Science in clinical investigation in addition to her internal medicine residency and infectious diseases fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Dr. Aslam joined the faculty at UC San Diego School of Medicine in 2010 where she is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine and serves as the Director of the solid organ transplant infectious diseases service.

Bacteriophage therapy treats an MDR bacterial infection in a CF patient.

A patient with cystic fibrosis had developed chronic respiratory failure due to a lung infection caused by multidrug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This patient had further developed kidney failure as a side effect of the antibiotic required to treat this infection, colistin. She received experimental treatment with bacteriophage therapy with successful treatment of this infection and was ultimately able to receive bilateral lung transplantation 9 months later.

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CHARM INNOVATIONS: Bacteriophage Therapy

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Center for Innovative phage applications and therapeutics

center for innovative phage applications and therapeutics

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pathogen threat: pseudomonas

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