Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common bacterial infections in the world, with upwards of 150 million cases reported per year, primarily in women.

UTIs are serious because many front-line antibiotics are no longer effective, making UTIs difficult to manage especially among postmenopausal women.

While UTIs can persist for years, significantly reducing quality of life and imposing a significant burden on the healthcare system, there are few treatment options.

A poster was created about this topic.

Here at The University of Texas at Dallas the De Nisco Lab is developing alternate therapies through translational clinical research.

By investigating how the host environment, and in particular, urinary inflammation and the urinary microbiome contribute to rUTI pathology, the long-term goal is to develop anti-inflammatory and probiotic therapies for rUTI.

The lab is collaborating with colleagues throughout the UT Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center to analyze the urinary microbiome and inflammation in patient samples. They are also partnering with researchers at the University of North Texas to investigate inflammatory and metabolic pathways associated with rUTI.

The lab has recently identified an inflammatory molecule associated with poor rUTI prognosis that may be a promising target for immunomodulatory therapies for rUTI and are developing a rapid, point-of-care test for this molecule.