Pardo-Freire Marco, Domingo-Calap Pilar
Institute for Integrative Systems Biology, I2SysBio, Universitat de València-CSIC, 46980 Paterna, Spain.
Biodes Res. 2023 Jan 16;5:0004. doi: 10.34133/bdr.0004. eCollection 2023.
Bacterial infections are a major threat to the human healthcare system worldwide, as antibiotics are becoming less effective due to the emergence of multidrug-resistant strains. Therefore, there is a need to explore nontraditional antimicrobial alternatives to support rapid interventions and combat the spread of pathogenic bacteria. New nonantibiotic approaches are being developed, many of them at the interface of physics, nanotechnology, and microbiology. While physical factors (e.g., pressure, temperature, and ultraviolet light) are typically used in the sterilization process, nanoparticles and phages (bacterial viruses) are also applied to combat pathogenic bacteria. Particularly, phage-based therapies are rising due to the unparalleled specificity and high bactericidal activity of phages. Despite the success of phages mostly as compassionate use in clinical cases, some drawbacks need to be addressed, mainly related to their stability, bioavailability, and systemic administration. Combining phages with nanoparticles can improve their performance in vivo. Thus, the combination of nanotechnology and phages might provide tools for the rapid and accurate detection of bacteria in biological samples (diagnosis and typing), and the development of antimicrobials that combine the selectivity of phages with the efficacy of targeted therapy, such as photothermal ablation or photodynamic therapies. In this review, we aim to provide an overview of how phage-based nanotechnology represents a step forward in the fight against multidrug-resistant bacteria.
细菌感染是全球人类医疗保健系统面临的重大威胁，因为由于多重耐药菌株的出现，抗生素的效果越来越差。因此，有必要探索非传统的抗菌替代品，以支持快速干预并对抗病原菌的传播。新的非抗生素方法正在开发中，其中许多处于物理学、纳米技术和微生物学的交叉领域。虽然物理因素（如压力、温度和紫外线）通常用于灭菌过程，但纳米颗粒和噬菌体（细菌病毒）也被用于对抗病原菌。特别是，基于噬菌体的疗法正在兴起，因为噬菌体具有无与伦比的特异性和高杀菌活性。尽管噬菌体在临床病例中大多作为同情用药取得了成功，但仍有一些缺点需要解决，主要涉及它们的稳定性、生物利用度和全身给药。将噬菌体与纳米颗粒结合可以提高它们在体内的性能。因此，纳米技术和噬菌体的结合可能为生物样品中细菌的快速准确检测（诊断和分型）提供工具，并开发出将噬菌体的选择性与靶向治疗（如光热消融或光动力疗法）的疗效相结合的抗菌剂。在这篇综述中，我们旨在概述基于噬菌体的纳米技术如何在对抗多重耐药细菌的斗争中向前迈出了一步。
