Antibiotics are the mainstay of treatment for pulmonary disease in CF.
Along with improved airway clearance techniques and nutrition, the availability (and aggressive use) of effective antimicrobials has been a major contributing factor in the improved health and prognosis of patients today.
However, significant problems still exist: bacteria develop resistance, either via genetic mutation or biofilm formation; the huge numbers of antibiotics administered to patients pose a burden on them, both in terms of time and toxicity; and most of the current strategies treat rather than prevent infection.
For all these reasons, new approaches would be highly desir- able.This chapter will review recent developments in conventional antimicrobial approaches and go on to highlight some of the research areas with promise.
Animation of LV Pseudotyping (2011): Short animation describing why we have to modify lentiviral vectors to allow them to transduce airway cells. More...