Bacteria have become resistant to the only weapon we have against them that is antibiotics. What if we get a way to harmlessly remove them from the body instead of killing them. The deadly toxins released from MRSA bacteria, venom of poisonous snake and bees can now be removed from our blood stream with the help of nanosponges. A team of scientists from the Department of Nano-Engineering and Moores Cancer Centre at the University of California (UC) headed by a Bioengineer Che-Ming “Jack” Hu reported there finding in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. They engineered particles of the size less than 100 nm diameter made up of lactic-glycolic acid polymer coated in proteins that mimics red blood cell membrane. The toxin was first tested for alpha-haemolysin from staphylococcus bacteria. The toxin is pore-forming and leads to cell death.
The nanosponges absorb these pore-forming toxins and divert them away from their natural targets. The inside of the nanosponge is made up of polymer network, the toxin molecules just sticks to them and leaving blood cells undamaged. The nanosponge carries the attached toxin to the liver, where it is eliminated from the body. Nanosponges were also tested on mice given with lethal doses of alpha-haemolysin from MRSA bacteria which showed 89 percent of survival rate. The technique is promising with ability to remove wide range of pathogen in future.
