New Strategy to Fight Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (IMAGE)
Caption
Nagoya University researchers and colleagues in Japan have demonstrated a new strategy in fighting antibiotics resistance: the use of artificial haem proteins as a Trojan horse to selectively deliver antimicrobials to target bacteria, enabling their specific and effective sterilization. The technique killed 99.9% of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a potentially deadly, antibiotic-resistant bacterium present in hospitals. This image shows a solution of the extracellular heme acquisition system protein A (HasA) with gallium phthalocyanine (Left) and the results of sterilization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli treated with HasA-bound gallium phthalocyanine by irradiation with near-infrared light (Right).
Credit
Osami Shoji
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