The Molecular Basis of Nanoparticle Resistance in Mixed-Species Biofilm

该项目旨在了解全球重要的混合物种病原体如何对银纳米颗粒产生耐药性，银纳米颗粒目前是抗生素最重要的替代抗菌素之一。该综合研究首次阐明了纳米颗粒对混合物种细菌群落的多靶向毒性，以及细菌如何反过来激活其细胞间信号传导以协同防御以适应纳米颗粒毒性。这些开创性的知识为针对种间代谢物串扰的技术奠定了基础，以克服耐药性现象，确保替代抗菌药物对难以控制的病原菌生长具有长期功效。

The project aims to understand how the globally significant mixed-species growth of pathogens develop resistance to silver nanoparticle, currently one of the most important alternative antimicrobials to antibiotics. The integrated research is to elucidate, for the first time, the nanoparticle multi-targeting toxicity on mixed-species bacterial community and how, in turn, the bacteria activate their cell-to-cell signalling for a synergistic defence to adapt to the nanoparticle toxicity. The pioneering knowledge is the foundation for technologies targeting the interspecies metabolite cross-talking to overcome the resistance phenomena, ensuring a long-term efficacy of the alternative antimicrobial on the difficult-to-control pathogenic growth.