Novel stabiliser-free cubosomes can transport antimicrobial peptides and promote wound healing
In 2018, in England alone, there were an estimated 61,000 antibiotic resistant infections – a 9% rise on the previous year. Infections that don’t respond to antibiotics have the potential to cause bloodstream infections and may require patients to be admitted to hospital. The numbers of antibiotic-resistant bloodstream infections rose by a third between 2014 and 2018. The rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a growing concern worldwide, prompting a search for new antibiotics and alternative strategies for fighting bacteria. One promising approach is the design of lipid-based antimicrobial nanocarriers. However, most of the polymer-stabilised nanocarriers are cytotoxic. In work recently published in Advanced Functional Materials, a team of Swiss researchers designed a novel, stabiliser-free nanocarrier for the antimicrobial peptide LL-37 that also promotes wound healing. They demonstrated that stabiliser-free cubosomes show promise as advanced cytocompatible nanovehicles for nutrient and drug delivery.
Vertebrates have two main immune strategies. In simple terms, the adaptive (or acquired) immune system responds to specific pathogens by producing antibodies. The innate immune system is older (in evolutionary terms) and is found in all kinds of life, from plants and fungi to insects and multicellular organisms. The innate immune system makes use of less specific defence mechanisms, including physical barriers (such as skin or bark), clotting factors in blood or sap, and specialised cells that attack foreign substances.
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Image : Graphical representation of a cubosome. The coloured surface resembles the lipid-water interface with the confined water channels. The channel diameter is typically in the range of 10 nanometres, with the overall size of the cubosomes being several hundred nanometres.