Developing alternatives against antibiotic resistance

PRAYAGRAJ : Biotechnologists of the state’s lone NIT—Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology (MNNIT)—are busy preparing a new-age, low-cost and effective alternative to treating bacterial infections using medicines that do not cause resistance which often results from long and repeated use of antibiotic medicines.

The mission is being undertaken as part of a three-year department of science and technology (DST)-science and engineering research board (SERB), New Delhi-funded project, researchers said.

“Bacterial infections pose a major threat to human health and are responsible for the most deaths in low-income countries. To combat these infections, antibiotic usage has tremendously increased leading to another problem of antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Hence, substantial efforts are being made to explore effective antibacterial alternatives to antibiotics, said Seema Nara, associate professor in MNNIT’s department of Biotechnology, who is heading the project.

The team is conducting research to synthesise catalytic nanomaterials that generate reactive oxygen species (ROS)— highly reactive chemicals formed from oxygen— and can be used as low cost, non-toxic and effective antibiotic alternatives.

“ROS can inactivate bacteria by irreversibly damaging its proteins, DNA, and polysaccharides. This project aims at engineering Cerium oxide-based catalytic nanostructure with good bacteria capture ability and ROS mediated bacterial killing,” Nara said. As part of this project, the efficacy of the nanozyme (nanomaterial-based artificial enzymes) in combating bacterial infections, disinfections and biofilm inhibition will be studied on a broad range of bacteria such as E coli,