Researchers at Asan Medical Center (AMC) have developed a bacterial target nanomaterial that reduces antibiotic use to one-tenth, the hospital said Tuesday.
The AMC team led by Professor Joo Jin-myung of the department of convergence medicine developed a new peptide that can selectively target tissues, in which the inflammatory response to bacterial infections occur, using a phage display technology that applies biochemical interactions between proteins, peptides, and DNA in the development of antibodies.
The team expects that the newly developed nanomaterial will reduce antibiotics consumed by patients, which will make it easier to treat bacteria that cause infection in the body and reduce the side effects of antibiotic overuse and tolerance.
The peptide uses a nano-drug delivery system that could bind the peptide to biodegradable silicone nanoparticles and selectively deliver antibiotics to Staphylococcus aureus.
Bacteria, such as staphylococcus aureus, are pathogens that can cause pneumonia and sepsis in hospitals. In particular, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a common antibiotic-resistant germ that requires more potent antibiotics such as vancomycin.
The researchers compared vancomycin antibiotics with standard intravenous and nano-drug delivery to rats with acute pneumonia caused by staphylococcal infection.
As a result, the team confirmed that the nano-drug system cured pneumonia by administrating only one-tenth of the amount of the general intravenous injection.
“As nanotechnology advances, various methods can be applied to medical technology such as the development of an effective drug delivery system,” Professor Joo said. “In particular, since infectious diseases require rapid diagnosis and treatment before spreading, development should be done systematically based on various basic research results and to provide a fusion of researchers with various backgrounds such as chemistry, biology.”
The results of the study were published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, a biomedical engineering journal.