IIT Delhi researchers develops new nanotechnology-based drug delivery system
An all-women team of researchers from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi has developed a new drug delivery platform using nanoparticles.
The nanotechnology-based drug delivery system has ability to boost the efficacy of antibiotics at the cellular level and improve chances of recovery from cancer-related bacterial infections.
Need
In traditional drug delivery system, if the bacterial infection in cancer remains untreated, it can infect the host even after the cancer cells are killed by chemotherapy. Similarly antibiotics used in most conventional therapeutics has several issues such as improper biodistribution, lack of target specificity, poor water solubility and loss of efficacy over time due to the emergence of drug resistance in pathogenic bacteria. Moreover, 50% of these antibodies prescribed to humans are either not needed or not effectively utilised as prescribed.
Key Facts
In the nanotechnology-based drug delivery system, a peptide called sushi-peptide was conjugated [bound] to gold nanoparticles. It was found that this peptide bound to gold nanoparticles was able to kill E. coli and Salmonella typhi bacteria more efficiently at lower dosages at much lower concentration than free peptides. The nanoconjugate was able to kill 50% of bacteria at much lower concentration (400 nM) while the free peptide’s antibacterial activity was not significant at the same concentration.
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Month: Current Affairs - August, 2017