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Bioresponsive Nanoparticles
Published in Deepa H. Patel, Bioresponsive Polymers, 2020
Drashti Pathak, Deepa H. Patel
Similarly, in the fight against antibiotic-resistant microbes, the number of effective antibiotic drugs available is limited. Recently, infections from bacteria strains resistant to our last line of antibiotic defense, the carbapenem class of antibiotic drugs that includes vancomycin, have been increasing in number. There are currently no new drugs in the pipeline to combat carbapenem-resistant bacterial infections. The widespread emergence of such infections is considered a significant threat to the public health. Hospital-acquired infections of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) were responsible for the deaths of 19,000 Americans in 2005 (the last year for which the US Centers for Disease Control has recorded). In order to prolong the lifespan of these critical, life-saving drugs, more efficient and effective delivery using nanomedicine technologies must be explored in earnest. Vaccination is another strategy that can benefit from the use of drug delivery vehicles [12–14]. Vaccinations rely on the body’s own defenses to combat the infection by providing the immune system with the proper tools to identify the infection. In one immunological pathway, antigens from the infectious pathogen are taken up by DCs, professional antigen-presenting cells, which then present the antigens to other immune cells such as T cells and B cells.
Hemolytic Assay of Biocompatible Nanomaterials in Drug Delivery Systems
Published in Ali Pourhashemi, Sankar Chandra Deka, A. K. Haghi, Research Methods and Applications in Chemical and Biological Engineering, 2019
Poonam Khullar, Lavanya Tandon, Rajpreet Kaur, Divya Mandial
This area is of keen interest due to the growing concern of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, such as methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The platelet membrane-coated NPs can also target to opportunistic bacteria, this is so because bacteria exploit platelets as a way to shield themselves from the immune system and localize to certain vulnerable tissues. The binding between platelets and bacteria is complex and occurs through the direct adhesion through bacterial surface protein. The platelet membrane-coated NPs (PNPs) have been developed by Hu et al. which are capable of multiple biological interactions. This binding has improved the bacteria killing efficacy and decreases the overall bacterial load.
Emerging Diseases
Published in Gary S. Moore, Kathleen A. Bell, Living with the Earth, 2018
Gary S. Moore, Kathleen A. Bell
Drug-resistant infections could be treated with other more powerful drugs like vancomycin and Rocephin, which many hospitals consider their “big guns” in the disease war. The appearance of vancomycin-resistant strains in hospitals during the late 1980s has encouraged a view among many epidemiologist and bacteriologists that hospitals themselves are the source of many forms of drug resistance. A recent report by the CDC found that vancomycin resistance measured at 0.3 percent in 1986, rose to 7.9 percent across several facilities in 1994.83 Intravenous vancomycin is the only treatment for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. MRSA are staphylococci that are resistant to the antibiotic, methicillin, and other commonly used antibiotics such as penicillin and cephalosporins. There is a unique gene in the staphylococcus that makes them resistant to most currently used antibiotics. Therefore, alternate antibiotics must be used to treat persons infected with MRSA. Vancomycin has been the most effective and reliable drug in these cases but is used intravenously and is not effective for treatment of MRSA when taken by mouth.84 The first infection with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the United States was reported in 1968.85 Since then, the proportion of S. aureus isolates resistant to methicillin causing infections in hospitalized patients has risen significantly from 2 percent in 1974 to about 40 percent in 1997. The MRSA infections involved patients in hospitals or long-term care facilities, but recent reports of “community-acquired” MRSA infections raise concern. These community MRSA infections are occurring in healthy, non-hospitalized persons who have no contact with healthcare personnel or other colonized patients.86 Should MRSA become widespread in the community, treatment of these infections will be much more difficult.84
The bactericidal potential of LLDPE with TiO2/ZnO nanocomposites against multidrug resistant pathogens associated with hospital acquired infections
Published in Journal of Biomaterials Science, Polymer Edition, 2020
Nor Hazliana Harun, Rabiatul Basria S. M. N Mydin, Srimala Sreekantan, Khairul Arifah Saharudin, Norfatehah Basiron, Azman Seeni
The most frequently isolated pathogens for overall HAIs was dominated by Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella spp., Staphylococcus aureus and Acinetobacter baumanni [9–11]. In this study, we focusing the two most common HAIs pathogens documented in the WHO 2017 Global Priority List of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria to Guide Research, Discovery, and Development of New Antibiotics [12]. WHO (2014) had listed MRSA as one of the pathogens which associated with high number of mortality rates among infected patients [13]. Its ability to develop resistance towards current drug of last option; vancomycin has become a great challenge in most hospital worldwide, includes in Asian countries. Recent reports claimed the prevalence rate of MRSA been isolated among S.aureus clinical isolation ranging from 17.2% to 28.1% within the time trend analysis from 2016 to 2017, it showed a slight increased from 18% to 19.8% [14, 15]. Another Gram-negative MDR phenotypes; Klebsiella pneumoniae (K.pneumoniae) also played an important role in HAIs risks. Klebiella spp. strains was exceedingly resistant to multiple antibacterial agents include ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, piperacillin, tazobactam, carbapenem and imipenem [16, 17]. According to the recent studies, K.pneumoniae had been identified as the 2nd most frequent pathogens in community-acquired (CA) nosocomial urinary tract infections (NUTIs) [18, 19].
In vivo imaging/detection of MRSA bacterial infections in mice using fluorescence labelled polymeric nanoparticles carrying vancomycin as the targeting agent
Published in Journal of Biomaterials Science, Polymer Edition, 2020
Araz Norouz Dizaji, Dan Ding, Tulin Kutsal, Mustafa Turk, Deling Kong, Erhan Piskin
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) refers to a group of Gram-positive bacteria that are genetically distinct from other strains of Staphylococcus aureus. MRSA is responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans, therefore has been selected as the target in this study [51–53]. Escherichia coli (E. coli) is another important pathogen – but in a group of Gram-negative bacteria – with very different bacterial wall structure comparing the ones in the Gram-positive bacteria – that was selected as the non-target in this study [53–55]. Vancomycin is one of the rare antibiotics that are effective against MRSA but not E. coli [56]. Therefore, it has been proposed not only to treat the MRSA infection but also as specific targeting agent as we have investigated in this study. Note that our focus here not to treat the MRSA infections but only imaging/detection of these infected areas. In addition, it should be pointed out that the presence of the carbocyclic groups allowed us chemical modification (thiolization) of vancomycin molecules which let easier and more reliable immobilization it onto our carriers described above [57].
Uncertainty quantification using probabilistic numerics: application to models in mathematical epidemiology
Published in Inverse Problems in Science and Engineering, 2018
Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterium commonly found in the human nasal mucosa or on the skin [11]. Although generally harmless to healthy individuals, this bacterium can cause a range of infections in its hosts, from benign skin and soft tissue infections to endocarditis and sepsis [12]. It is, in fact, the most common bacterial pathogen isolated from human infections [12,13]. When treating S. aureus infections, the strains which show resistance to the first-line defence of antibiotic treatments present a considerable burden to the patient as well as to the health care system. Since the start of a widespread use of antibiotics in the second half of the twentieth century, antibiotic resistant S. aureus strains have become widespread. Of particular concern has been the Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which is resistant to penicillin and all of its derivatives.