Sublingual therapy may prevent recurrence of UTIs in women

Recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs), which consist of three or more episodes in 1 year or two or more infections in 6 months, affect 5% to 10% of women. MV140, a sublingual preparation of whole-cell inactivated bacteria, has shown clinical benefit in observational studies. This trial examined treatment with MV140 to prevent recurrent UTI.

In this multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group 1-year trial, 240 women 18 to 75 years of age from Spain and the United Kingdom with recurrent UTI were allocated to receive MV140 for 3 or 6 months or placebo for 6 months in a 1:1:1 ratio. The primary endpoint was the number of UTIs in the 9-month study period after 3 months of intervention. Key secondary endpoints were the percentage of women who were UTI free over the above period, time to UTI onset, and health-related quality of life.

Results:

The median (interquartile range) of UTI episodes was 3.0 (0.5 to 6.0) for placebo compared with 0.0 (0.0 to 1.0) in both groups receiving MV140 (P<0.001). Among women treated with placebo, 25% (95% confidence interval [CI], 15% to 35%) were free of UTIs compared with 56% (95% CI, 44% to 67%) and 58% (95% CI, 44% to 67%) of women who received 3 and 6 months of MV140 treatment, respectively. A total of 205 AEs in 101 participants were registered (81, 76, and 48 in the placebo, 3-month MV140, and 6-month MV140 groups, respectively).

Thus, in this controlled trial of modest size and duration, MV140 showed promising clinical efficacy in reducing recurrent UTI in women suffering from this condition. Adverse effects were not clinically limiting.

Reference:

Sublingual MV140 for Prevention of Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections by María-Fernanda Lorenzo-Gómez, et al. published in the NEJM Evidence.

https://evidence.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/EVIDoa2100018