Due to the potential lytic properties of AMPs against bacterial and mammalian membranes, one of the challenges of DermaGen in designing new peptides relies on developing AMPs with high specificity against bacterial or fungal cells without casing toxic effects to human cells. This is typical of one of our peptide families, which has a broad scope covering endogenous AMPs derived from a distinct part the immunological complement system. Development of these peptides involved advanced in silico calculations paired with microbiological analyses and toxicity studies to select highly active AMPs according to the preferred antibacterial spectrum and non-toxicity.
Pre-clinical studies for choice of candidate drug and back-up substances, as well as risk analysis activities all include in vitro toxicity studies. When testing certain of our AMPs in topically administered creams and ointments for toxicology and safety pharmacology studies, pigs have been chosen as the test model because pig skin has been shown to be anatomically, physiologically and biochemically similar to human skin.
Safety and toxicological issues are handled by both our project team members and by consultants from external support teams.