Innovative research aiming to prevent the spread of Strep A using ‘friendly’ bacteria in the throat has received a $1.5 million boost in the latest round of National Health and Medical Research Council grants.
Awarded to Dr Janessa Pickering and Dr August Mikucki, Research Fellows at the Wesfarmers Centre of Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, based at The Kids Research Institute Australia, and The University of Western Australia’s School of Biomedical Sciences, the Ideas Grant builds on a discovery that naturally occurring bacteria in the throat can kill Strep A – the pathogen behind millions of infections and the early driver of rheumatic heart disease (RHD).
Recurrent, untreated Strep A infections can lead to life-threatening RHD, sepsis and kidney disease, and they occur at alarmingly high rates in Western Australia’s Kimberley region – one in six school children will have Strep A present in their throat at any one time.
Dr Pickering and her team identified the ‘friendly’ strains of bacteria through extensive analysis of a world-class biobank of children’s throat swabs collected as part of the Missing Piece Surveillance Study.
“Throughout 2019 – 2023, we conducted regular visits with 250 school kids from Broome and Derby to learn more about the burden of Strep A, as well as what types of Strep A were causing infections, and what the antibody responses were to the infections,” Dr Pickering said.
“We discovered that some kids carried the same type of Strep A infection for years, while others never got it at all, which has now guided our work looking at the protective microbiome, or healthy bugs in the throat, that could be potentially guarding some kids against infection.
“Out of 215 promising bacterial strains, several have emerged as standout protectors that appear to naturally inhibit or out-compete Strep A for space and nutrients, which creates an environment where the pathogen cannot thrive.
“Our pilot data shows these candidates consistently inhibit Strep A in vitro, and with this NHMRC funding, we now have the opportunity to further explore how this microbial defence works.”
The study team will now analyse these protective bacteria in detail and test their behaviour using a sophisticated tonsil infection model designed to mimic human throat tissue infections. This work will be in completed in tandem alongside social scientists Dr Emma Haynes, (The University of Western Australia), and Dr Alice Mitchell (Menzies School of Health Research), as well as Aboriginal communities in WA and NT, who will investigate the appetite and acceptability for therapeutics in Strep A prevention.
“Ultimately, we hope to generate the knowledge needed for the development of new, child-friendly therapeutics – including probiotic-style treatments – which could significantly reduce instances of Strep A infections, and in turn, finally see the end of RHD in Australia,” Dr Pickering said.