Karo Barsamian

A method for overcoming antibiotic resistance uses multimodal nanoparticles that target bacterial defence mechanisms while enhancing the innate immune response. The rise in antibiotic resistance is considered a slow-moving medical catastrophe, as these revolutionary drugs that have kept us relatively safe from bacterial infection for decades are losing their efficacy. In part due to their co-evolution, bacterial pathogens have developed mechanisms to resist almost every antibiotic on the market and we are in desperate need for new, innovative approaches. Writing in Nature Nanotechnology, Zhu et al. present a nanoparticle-based possibility, in which they target bacterial defence mechanisms while simultaneously enhancing the ability of the host immune cells to fight infection.