Stoke Mandeville charity announces £300k funding for 'life-changing' research projects

A Stoke Mandeville-based charity has announced it is funding two long term research projects by donating £300,000.

Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research (SMSR) has unveiled plans to contribute to two new research projects for treatment of urinary tract infection (UTI).

Specifically, the project will look at people with with spinal cord injury (SCI), that suffer with the problem. Contributors believe the research scheme could have “life-changing” implications.

Firstly, researchers from the Royal Berkshire Hospital will complete a three-year study of Uromone, a new vaccine which has been developed to prevent bladder infections.

Uromune is a spray used every day under the tongue for three months. Scientific trials from around the world have shown it to be effective at preventing water infections in people prone to frequent infections despite using all sorts of other treatments, but it has never been researched in SCI people, the charity says.

“People with SCI suffer with more bladder infections (urinary tract infections) than average, and the more complex mix of bladder bacteria in people with SCI makes them more difficult to treat. Unfortunately, even with the best treatment, severe infections can happen which in some cases may be life threatening,” said Derek Cutler, SMSR research manager.

To stop infections happening so frequently, patients may take a daily low dose antibiotic. However, bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics, and the more antibiotics we use, the worse this problem becomes. Taking antibiotics can also give harmful side-effects, including diarrhoea, lung, and liver disease.

Bob Yang, consultant urologist at Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, added: “Uromune treatment could be life-changing and our team in Reading has

already proven its effectiveness in many women with recurrent UTIs, yet it has never been formally tried in spinal cord injury patients, so we hope to change that by comparing how effective it is at preventing bladder infections against a fake Uromune vaccine, using the most scientifically accurate type of research study. We are grateful to SMSR for providing the funding to make this study possible.”

The second project will see SMSR funds supporting a two-year international study led by University Hospital Basel, examining whether re-use of catheters affects rates of UTI in people with SCI.

People with SCI commonly use catheters to empty their bladder and the study will take advantage of natural variations in catheter use and re-use across the world to inform best practice with respect to UTI risk, the charity adds.

People in India, Canada and the UK will be contributing to the project.

Derek Cutler, SMSR Research Manager, said: “After inviting applications from researchers as part of our annual grant call last September, and subsequent

review by our Scientific Advisory Board, we are delighted to be funding these two projects. UTIs are one of our priority areas and we hope that this cutting-edge research will start to make the misery of UTIs a thing of the past for people with SCI.”

More information on the two projects can be found online here.