Journal
NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY
Volume 4, Issue 7, Pages 457-463Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/NNANO.2009.153
Keywords
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Funding
- Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, the National Basic Research Program 973 of P.R. China [20076513003]
- State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, P.R. China [2008A05]
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Antimicrobial cationic peptides are of interest because they can combat multi-drug-resistant microbes. Most peptides form a-helices or P-sheet-like structures that can insert into and subsequently disintegrate negatively charged bacterial cell surfaces. Here, we show that a novel class of core-shell nanoparticles formed by self-assembly of an amphiphilic peptide have strong antimicrobial properties against a range of bacteria, yeasts and fungi. The nanoparticles show a high therapeutic index against Staphylococcus aureus infection in mice and are more potent than their unassembled peptide counterparts. Using Staphylococcus aureus-infected meningitis rabbits, we show that the nanoparticles can cross the blood-brain barrier and suppress bacterial growth in infected brains. Taken together, these nanoparticles are promising antimicrobial agents that can be used to treat brain infections and other infectious diseases.
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