New York: A novel light-activated nanotherapy developed by researchers at the University of Colorado- Boulder may be an effective weapon against the drug-resistant bacteria, say researchers including one of Indian-origin, reports IANS.
Efforts to thwart the so-called “superbugs” – antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as Salmonella, E. Coli and Staphylococcus — have consistently fallen short due to the bacteria’s ability to rapidly adapt and develop immunity to common antibiotics such as penicillin. In this study, published in the journal Nature Materials, researchers described new light-activated therapeutic nanoparticles known as “quantum dots.” The dots, which are about 20,000 times smaller than a human hair and resemble the tiny semiconductors used in consumer electronics, successfully killed 92 percent of drug-resistant bacterial cells in a lab-grown culture.
“By shrinking these semiconductors down to the nanoscale, we’re able to create highly specific interactions within the cellular environment that only target the infection,” said senior author of the study Prashant Nagpal, assistant professor at University of Colorado Boulder in the US.
