Introduction: The chronic airway infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) is a risk factor for rapid disease progression in various chronic pulmonary diseases including cystic fibrosis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Inhaled antibiotics are able to treat effectively such chronic airway infections, and MP-376 is currently in late-stage clinical development for such an indication.
Areas covered: Review of the existing preclinical and clinical data on MP-376, with a focus on the efficacy and safety of the compound on chronic airways infections due to PA.
Expert opinion: Chronic airways infection with PA represents a therapeutic challenge because of its own complex mechanisms of defense, because of the rapid development of antibiotic resistance and by the fact that systemic antibiotics are not always able to achieve appropriate concentrations at lung level. Inhaled antibiotics (tobramycin, aztreonam, etc.) represent optimal alternatives to their systemic homologs due to their better penetrability in the lungs and due to the lower systemic exposure. Inhaled levofloxacin which is currently investigated for chronic airways infection might be another possible antipseudomonal inhaled therapy.