A half a million pound grant has been awarded to scientists in Northern Ireland to find alternative treatments for Covid-19 and investigate the bacterial infections that targeted the sickest patients.

The research project will be run at Queens University by Professor Jos Bengoechea.

Available information already shows that bacterial co-infections are associated with severe cases of Covid-19 in more than half of the patients tested.

And those infections appear to have a limited arsenal of antibiotic drugs to combat them.

Using the clinical data and postmortem analysis of tissues from Covid-19 patients, scientists have a battle ahead to work out the interactions between the SARS-CoV-2 virus and bacterial infections.

They believe a patient presenting with bacterial infection alongside the virus may face a more difficult the clinical outcome and severity of Covid-19, which combined may increase the risk of death.

The experts believe it is possible that the virus and bacteria may affect each others virulence by interfering with protective defense responses within the body.

And co-presence of bacteria and the virus may increase the damage of the lungs and facilitate the virus movement into the brain and the gut.

Now that the research team from Queens University Belfast has been awarded the 500,000 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Rapid Response Fund grant, they will to investigate the role of bacterial co-infections in Covid-19, and drug repurposing for the treatment of the disease.

The grant is one of only five projects supported in the UK by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBRSC) and will last 18 months.

The team, led by Professor Jos Bengoechea, consists of leading researchers from the Wellcome-Wolfson Institute for Experimental Medicine (WWIEM) at Queens who are experts in virology, immunology and translational bioinformatics: Professor Ultan Power, Dr Connor Bamford, Dr Adrien Kissenpfennig; Dr David Simpson and Dr Guillermo Lpez-Campos.

The anticipated findings of the research will help to better manage severe Covid-19 patients and identify those at risk of complications due to the presence of bacterial co-infections.

And the research teams unique knowledge will be used to test the expected antiviral behaviour of FDA-approved drugs in the co-infection area. These drugs will be considered in clinical trials as new treatments for Covid-19.

Prof Bengoechea is Professor of Molecular Microbiology and Director of WWIEM at Queens University. He explained: There is an urgent need to develop new therapeutics to treat Covid-19 targeting the virus/bacteria co-infection scenario.

It is critical that bacterial co-infections should not be underestimated and instead be part of the plan to limit the global burden of morbidity and mortality during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.

We hope that our research exploring the role of bacterial and SARS-CoV-2 co-infections will result in finding better treatments to improve the health of Covid-19 patients and possibly even save lives.

Professor Stuart Elborn, Pro-Vice Chancellor for the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences at Queens, said: Im delighted Queens has been awarded this grant from UK Research and Innovation to research the impact of bacterial co-infections in Covid-19.

This research project demonstrates Queens commitment to delivering positive impact on society and is an excellent opportunity for our researchers to use their collective expertise to improve our knowledge of this new virus and its complications to optimise the care of severely effected people with Covid-19.

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Queen's team work on link between bacterial co-infections and Covid-19 - Belfast Live