Hamlet BioPharma, the pharmaceutical company, specializing in the development of drugs for cancer and infections, announces the publication of new scientific advances important for identifying patient groups suitable for the new therapies against bacterial infections that the company is developing, in collaboration with scientists at Lund University. 

The disease response to kidney infection, evaluated by genome-wide analysis tools, was characterized in two clinical studies published in the March issue of Life Science Alliance, 2025 by the team at Lund University, collaborating with Hamlet BioPharma.

Link to the article: https://www.life-science-alliance.org/content/8/3/e202402926

Title: Molecular analysis of acute pyelonephritis – excessive innate and attenuated adaptive immunity

Infants with severe febrile kidney infections were studied for the cause of disease, using strict clinical protocols. Two study sites were involved (Singapore and Sweden). Analysis of DNA, RNA and protein profiles show that severe kidney infections are caused by uncontrolled and exaggerated immune responses that  lose their protective effects and becomes destructive for the kidneys.

The exaggerated immune response in the infected babies, called a cytokine storm, is similar to that seen in some COVID patients. Stopping this storm and empowering the normal defence is therefore a priority. The new infection treatments developed by the scientists are successfully addressing this question in animal models of kidney infection, where the cytokine storm response is inhibited, and bacterial clearance accelerated. The power of this approach was recently confirmed in a clinical study of recurrent acute cystitis, where the cytokine storm was inhibited, and the patient's health improved.

The results explain why bacterial infections can be treated with therapies other than antibiotics and identify susceptibility factors and disease markers that can help match the right patients with the right novel anti-infective therapy that Hamlet BioPharma and the scientists are developing.

The broad collaborative clinical network required for these studies is maintained through long-standing collegial interactions. Technology for genome-wide analyses of clinical samples is maintained by the scientists at Lund University in collaboration with Lund University.

For more information, please contact

Catharina Svanborg, CEO and founder, +46 709 42 65 49

catharina.svanborg@hamletpharma.com

Ines Ambite, senior scientist, Lund University +46-762088958

Ines.Ambite@med.lu.se