Nanotechnology Combats Fatal Brain Infections

IBN’s Minute Antibacterial Particles Destroy Drug-Resistant Germs

Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), Singapore - Doctors may get a new arsenal for meningitis treatment and the war on drug-resistant bacteria and fungal infections with IBN’s novel peptide nanoparticles. The stable bioengineered nanoparticles devised at IBN effectively seek out and destroy bacteria and fungal cells that could cause fatal infections. Studies just published in the world’s leading nanoscience journal Nature Nanotechnology, that has an Impact Factor of 14.917, (DOI:10.1038/NNANO.2009.153) show IBN’s nanoparticles to be highly therapeutic.1

Using nanotechnology, the IBN team has produced an effective treatment for brain infections. Major brain infections such as meningitis and encephalitis are a leading cause of death, hearing loss, learning disability and brain damage in patients. The brain membrane is impenetrable to most conventional antibiotics because the molecular structure of most drugs is too big to enter the membrane. IBN’s peptide nanoparticles, on the other hand, contain a membrane-penetrating component that enables them to pass through the blood brain barrier to the infected areas of the brain that require treatment. The ability of IBN’s peptide nanoparticles to traverse the blood brain barrier offers a superior alternative to existing treatments for brain infections.

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