However, the Jena scientists don't know yet exactly why their nanoparticle fights the bacteria so much more efficiently. But they want to finally get clarification in the year ahead. "We have two assumptions: Either the much more efficient transport method advances significantly larger amounts of active ingredients to the center of infection, or the nanoparticle circumvents a defense mechanism, which the bacterium has developed against the antibiotic," the Jena Pharmacist Fischer explains. "This would mean, that we succeeded in giving back its impact to an antibiotic, which had already lost it through a development of resistance of the bacteria."
"More specifically, we assume that bacteria from the lower layers of the biofilm transform into dormant persisters and hardly absorb any substances from outside. In this stadium, they are tolerant to most antibiotics, which only kill off self-dividing bacteria. The nanoparticles transport the antibiotics more or less against their will to the inner part of the cell, where they can unfold their impact," Mathias Pletz adds.
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Additionally, the Jena research team had to prepare the nanoparticles for the inhalation. Because at 200 nanometers the particle is too small to get into the deeper airways. "The breathing system filters out particles that are too big as well as those which are too small," Dagmar Fischer explains. "So, we are left with a preferred window of between one and five micrometers." The Jena researchers also have promising ideas for resolving this problem.
Coating of Nanoparticles enhances the impact of Antibiotics against Biofilms
The scientists from Jena are at this point already convinced to have found a very promising method to fight respiratory infections of patients with mucoviscidosis. Thus they may be able to contribute to a higher life expectancy of those affected. "We were able to show that the nanoparticle coating improves the impact of the antibiotics against biofilm by a factor of 1,000," the pulmonologist and infectious diseases physician is happy to say.
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