Project description
South African plants to combat multidrug-resistant bacteria
Multidrug-resistant bacteria are becoming increasingly common causes of acute and chronic infections, posing a severe threat to public health worldwide, especially since antibiotics can cause many side effects. The problem is caused because when bacteria live together in a biofilm community, they tend to develop resistance to various types of antibiotics. The MSCA-funded INSAPANT project aims to use South African plants to synthesise biogenic nanoparticles to combat biofilms associated with these bacteria. The project's novel delivery system uses aptamers to selectively carry the nanoparticles to the site of action, making it more efficient. The findings could lead to a unique drug delivery system that reduces mortality caused by bacterial infections.
Objective
Multidrug-resistant bacteria are becoming implicated more frequently in acute and chronic infections. Bacteria often live together in a biofilm community, which makes it easier for bacteria to become resistant to different classes of antibiotics. This poses a severe threat to global public health, and the fact that antibiotics have many side effects makes the situation even worse. It is imperative to search for novel, safe, and effective antimicrobial agents and robust drug delivery strategies. In INSAPANT, South African plants will be employed for the green synthesis of biogenic nanoparticles, and their antibacterial potential against biofilm associated with multidrug-resistant bacteria will be investigated.
The main goal of the INSAPANT is to exploit a synergic therapeutic approach by designing a novel delivery system targeted with aptamers that will carry the biogenic nanoparticles selectively on site of action and protect them following systemic administration. This combinatorial strategy can potentially remove the biofilm in a manner that is more efficient than a passive release or the administration of the content alone.
INSAPANT has significant social benefits since it has the potential to lead to the creation of a unique drug delivery system for the treatment of biofilm formation and, ultimately, the reduction of mortality caused by bacterial infections.
The INSAPANT fellowship will contribute to i) Expose the researcher to a multidisciplinary and intersectoral research network and foster excellence in research; ii) Improve the researcher's project management and fundraising skills; iii) Enhance the researcher's communication, dissemination, and exploitation of results, as well as Transfer of Knowledge to various audiences; and iv) Boost the researcher's career development skills.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- social sciencessociologydemographymortality
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologybacteriology
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsantibiotics
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Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
66013 Chieti
Italy