General microbiology - viruses, bacteria, fungi >>>> To fight microbes - nanotechnology

To fight microbes - nanotechnology.

Size matters when it comes to the smallest pests of health - pathogenic microorganisms, to resist the attack of which it becomes more and more difficult for a person due to the high adaptability of microbes to the changing conditions of fighting them.

Biological methods of killing pathogens - bacteriophages - help, but selectively. Biochemical protection - antibiotics - is inferior to the rate of mutation of pathogenic microorganisms and becomes more and more ineffective. But what if we combine pharmaceuticals and controlled nanoparticles, that is, create an opportunity for antimicrobial drugs to act selectively and only at the right time.

Scientists - biologists from Rutgers University of New Jersey thought about this and allowed nanoparticles to control the distribution of antibacterial drugs.

The essence of the experiment was the introduction of an antibacterial agent into the body, but not just into the bloodstream, where it will spontaneously spread throughout all tissues and organs, but transfer the drug on the surface of structurally altered quartz molecules, which will react to the chemical activity of pathogens, move towards pathogenic microorganisms and "bombard" them purposefully.

It is no secret that antibiotics, in addition to their main action, have many side effects, spreading through the tissues of the body. Replacing the useless extensive effect of an antibiotic on all biological structures, and narrowing it down to an effective effect on specific targets - this was the task before scientists, and the first successful results have already been obtained. Nanoparticles, transferring an antibacterial agent, can include it in the fight against microbes on a delayed basis, thus antibacterial therapy acquires a prophylactic effect.

Scientists are confident that the fight against microbes by nanotechnology can replace the well-known methods of antibacterial protection of the body.