I-Corps: Polymeric Antibiotics for Drug-Resistant Infections

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力正在为抗菌治疗和治疗包括医疗保健、农业、水处理和兽医在内的许多领域的抗生素耐药细菌提供可能的范式转变。直接针对各种微生物的抗药性菌株的能力可以对全球医学状况产生至关重要的影响。疾控中心估计，每年有200多万人感染抗生素耐药细菌，其中至少23,000人死于抗生素耐药感染。天然纳米材料的使用和可获得性可以天生影响各种微生物的生长，这将使更多的人能够获得抗菌剂的应用。除了这种直接使用的潜力外，纳米抗生素还可能被用于处理水系统，从而实现广阔的新市场应用。这个i-Corps项目源于一项核心技术，该技术能够选择性地靶向人类患者体内的感染，同时阻止细菌进入传统的抗药性产生机制。其目的是解决使用能够逆转细菌耐药性的工程纳米抗生素来解决耐药感染的现代解决方案的需求。这些纳米抗生素结合了核酸的遗传特异性和具有治疗能力的物理活性载体。增加了刺激响应功能，使纳米颗粒可以根据需要调节到特定的感染，同时保持广泛的可用性。这种治疗策略是独特的，不仅因为基因沉默被用来消除耐多药细菌的耐药性，还使用了一种能够杀死微生物的输送载体。这种方法是可推广的，并有可能应用于治疗对常规抗生素产生抗药性的任何细菌感染。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is providing a possible paradigm shift in antimicrobial therapy and in treating antibiotic resistant bacteria in a multitude of fields including healthcare, agriculture, water treatment, and veterinary. The ability to directly target drug resistant strains of various microbes can provide a vital impact on the state of global medicine. The CDC estimates more than 2 million people become infected with antibiotics resistant bacteria yearly, with at least 23,000 deaths due to antibiotic resistant infections. The use and availability of a natural nanomaterial that can innately affect the growth of various strains of microbes will enable wider access to antimicrobial applications. Aside from this potential for direct use, nano-antibiotics can also possibly be used to treat water systems, enabling a broad new market application.This I-Corps project stems from the core technology which enables selective targeting of infections inside human patients while denying the bacteria access to the traditional mechanisms through which drug resistance develops. The aim is to address the need for modern solutions to drug-resistant infections with engineered nano-antibiotics that are capable of reversing drug resistance in bacteria. These nano-antibiotics combine the genetic specificity of nucleic acids with a physically-active vector with therapeutic capability. A stimuli-responsive function is added to allow the nanoparticle to be tunable to specific infections as needed, while maintaining a wide-spectrum usability. This therapeutic strategy is unique not just because gene silencing is used to remove drug resistant properties from multi-drug resistant bacteria, a delivery vector that has the capability to kill the microbe is also used. This approach is generalizable, and can potentially be implemented to treat any bacterial infection that has become resistant to conventional antibiotics.