Nanotechnology, the new hope against ‘superbug’

London, October 13: Scientists and researchers have pinned all their hopes on the nanochemical, Vancomycin, to now combat the invincible superbug infections like MRSA – Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus.

A team of researchers, led by Rachel McKendry and Gabriel Aeppli, of London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN), University College of London (UCL), by undertaking an in depth study of the working of antibiotics have now been able to establish that nanochemical Vancomycin in comparison with other antibiotics, generates far better results in fighting against resistant as well as non-resistant bacterial varieties.

Using ultra sensitive probes – the cantilever arrays, throughout the course of the study, researchers analyzed the working of various antibiotics on bacteria. This gave them an insight into what actually happens when the cell wall of the bacteria is attacked by the antibiotics inside the human body and the response of both resistant, as well as non-resistant bacterial varieties to them.

The cantilever arrays, which are ultra thin and ultra sensitive, tiny levers; were laced with mucopeptides from the bacterial cell wall and then the reaction of Vancomycin was studied on the bacterial cells.

It was found that the mucopeptides, which are polymers in bacterial cell wall, are attacked by the antibioticdefine, which attaches itself to them and causes a surface stress which was reflected by the slight bending of the levers of the probe. It is this stress which causes the cell wall of the bacteria to ultimately break and cause the cell to disrupt, thus fighting the infection.

Such detailed study of antibiotic action on bacterial cells also gave the researchers an insight into the fact that makes many antibiotics unsuccessful on resistant strains, like those of MRSA.

The ‘superbugs’ are capable of a very simple and small deception, which helps them evade the disrupting effect of antibiotics. It has been found that these bugs mutate to delete one hydrogen bond from the polymer structure in their cell walls. As a result, it becomes 1000 times more difficult for the antibiotics to attach to their walls, rendering them incapable of destroying these bacteria.

However, when the interdisciplinary team of researchers studied the effects of nanochemical Vancomycin on the resistant as well as non-resistant strains of bacteria it was discovered that this antibiotic was far more capable of weakening the cell walls of these bacteria and ultimately killing them, in comparison to other antibiotics.

“There has been an alarming growth in antibiotic-resistant hospital ’superbugs’ such as MRSA and Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE),” said McKendry. “This is a major global health problem and is driving the development of new technologies to investigate antibiotics and how they work.”

While the development of new and powerful drugs to fight the growing menace of MRSA has been next to negligible, the bacteria on the other hand are growing stronger and more and more resistant to the existing brigade of chemicals we have for them, mutating over the ages to outsmart us, necessitating the urgent introduction of a stronger counter agent.

The research which was published in Nature Nanotechnology on Sunday, also stresses on the effectiveness of cantilevers in such studies, providing not only an in-depth analysis of antibiotic action on bacteria as it would have been inside the human body; but also at the same time, paving the way for the development of better drugs based on the findings.

The research was provided all financial support by the EPSRC (Speculative Engineering Programme), the IRC in Nanotechnology (Cambridge, UCL and Bristol), the Royal Society and the BBSRC.