UK-based Centauri Therapeutics Ltd has selected a lead compound for clinical development capping a decade of research into potential agents for treating serious bacterial infections. The compound, as yet unnamed, has been designed to target Gram-negative infections in the lung. Infections from Gram-negative bacteria are typically difficult to treat because the bacteria are surrounded by a cell wall in addition to an outer membrane containing a complex molecule known as a lipopolysaccharide. By comparison, Gram-positive bacteria do not have this outer membrane.
